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It is easier for the registration of births, deaths and marriages to be able to hold appointments, as those departments will always have the requirement for an office, but that is not the case for local authorities when people are trying to deal with licensing.

An awful lot of discretion is given to local authorities in the bill. Is there a concern that they have too much discretion and that people who make applications for licences will not have a say in how the meeting will be held? Perhaps Mairi Millar would be the best person to answer that.

I will go back to some points that John Mason raised and will direct my question to Fiona Blair. It concerns the guarantee of in-person registration. The Scottish Government’s position is that the effect of sections 18 and 20 is that a local registration office must offer in-person registration to any individual who desires it. Is that your reading of the bill?

As more people take up the digital option, will there be problems further down the line with smaller and smaller numbers of people who want to have an in-person meeting being able to be accommodated?

There is nothing in the bill that says that the local authority must provide the in-person option. Do you think that that should be added to the bill?

As someone who does not have much experience of the fishing industry, that highlights to me how hugely complex it is to ensure that one sector is not overly affected by another, and how complex everything else that goes with that is.

I assume that the stakeholders will have a full understanding of the complexity and will be comfortable with the fact that you would rather take your time to get a fisheries management plan right than introduce it quickly. Is that fair?

So, the speed of the plan’s development is less important than the plan’s ability to do its job.

Okay. What is your view, Elaine?

Will you outline the process for agreeing the interpretation of the fisheries objectives in the JFS between the UK Government and the devolved Administrations? Were stakeholders involved in that?