Seòmar agus comataidhean

Malcolm, will you clarify something? Maggie Gill’s report is new—it has only just been released—but she highlights what Griggs said about the creation of a central science evidence base. Is that what you were referring to when you talked about the blueprint bringing people together, or is that a separate part of the report?

I am sorry, but I have just picked up on something that I probably should have asked about earlier. The Griggs review says:

“There is an allowance in the licence charge for local community benefit for the area where the site is situated. It’s my belief that a significant amount of what is collected (similar to Norway) goes back to the communities in whatever form so that they can also benefit from the economic prosperity that the farms will bring. Decisions will have to be made on whether this part of the payment should be collected by Government for redistribution or whether the operator should be legally obliged to disburse that payment themselves directly to the community”.

Did you address that in answer to a previous question? Did I miss that?

I am not quite sure where the politics would come in. The country is generally agreed that we are TB free, though there may be issues with certain reactors. As long as we just want clarification of the purpose behind the order and to know that everything has been looked at, I am not sure that there is anything political to worry about.

[Inaudible.]—is not an option. We know that.

I want to get some perspective here. The survival rate for wild Atlantic salmon is somewhere between 1 and 3 per cent. For farmed salmon, it is about 85 per cent. There will be extenuating factors and extraordinary occurrences that the cabinet secretary mentioned, such as jellyfish and algal bloom.

Edward Mountain has just quoted numbers of dead fish. My question is on that issue and is quite an odd one. What do the farms do with the dead fish?

It is almost how certain wind farm operators work—the money goes directly to the community for the community to be able to work. Could the same be considered for fish farm sites?

Okay. So, where my head is on this is that, if communities that are affected by fish farms do not have a vested interest in them, they will not have the same buy-in. Is there a way of strengthening the local community’s ability to have a vested interest?

Thank you.

I have one quick question about what you said about needing the centre but also needing localisation. Does that mean that local health boards will have to have the people in place to tap into if there is an outbreak in any particular area of Scotland?

Very briefly.