Meeting of the Parliament 04 March 2026 [Draft]
Scotland’s coastal communities are being asked yet again to carry costs that other parts of the country will never see and to absorb disruption that other industries would never accept.
The Government knows that,
“By supporting the expansion of offshore wind development in Scottish waters and increasing the demand on marine space for the implementation of compensatory measures, the policy is anticipated to have a negative impact on fisheries.”
Fishermen are being asked to pay for net zero twice: first, through disruption to their jobs and displacement of their place of work; then, potentially, again through new restrictions and closures dressed up as environmental compensation.
It is insane that the Scottish National Party Government wants to damage fishing grounds in order to hit its net zero targets by building ever bigger wind farms out at sea. Even more scandalously, it wants to solve that damage by restricting fishing, all but destroying the livelihoods of the fishermen who fish those same waters. Let me repeat that: the Government wants to ruin the livelihoods of our fishing communities by building turbines, then penalise those same communities for that decision. Clearly, this rotten Government will not be happy until every fish and meat producer in the north-east is driven out of business.
The fishing community is clear: it does not want this. It is overwhelmingly opposed to the measures. There needs to be proper compensation in place—[Interruption.]