Meeting of the Parliament 05 June 2019
I thank the cabinet secretary for the prior sight of his statement.
Let me be quite clear: I welcome the statement. The reports on Scottish salmon from the REC Committee and the ECCLR Committee showed that the status quo is unacceptable, and it is positive to hear of the progress that the salmon interactions working group and technical working group are making. It is important to recognise that, if the industry is to grow, it must grow sustainably.
I welcome the announcement that there will be legislation to require salmon farms to publish lice numbers weekly, and I welcome the announcement of a reduction in reporting and intervention thresholds, which follows the advice in the REC Committee report.
It is important that the weekly reports on lice numbers are published. Will the cabinet secretary say when the figures will be published?
I appreciate that the cabinet secretary acknowledged that his planned timescale for the introduction of legislation is short. It is important that fish farmers are able to plan and make the necessary preparations and upgrades to make the new system happen. However, it is also important and correct that the legislation should be introduced early in 2020. Will the cabinet secretary give us a clearer timescale for when new regulations will come into being?
The appropriate technologies are essential to the carrying out of lice checks, especially if that is to be done weekly. What support will be made available to smaller fish farms, which might not have the funds or infrastructure to achieve what is required timeously?