The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.
All Official Reports of meetings in the Debating Chamber of the Scottish Parliament.
All Official Reports of public meetings of committees.
Displaying 4578 contributions
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 19 June 2024
Ariane Burgess
That is interesting, is it not? It is tricky, because there are different actions for existing sites. Some things—maybe sea lice things—are rolled out on existing sites, but the emamectin benzoate standard will not be rolled out, because we are waiting for the Scottish Government—
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 19 June 2024
Ariane Burgess
Yes, I understand that, but I am most interested in existing sites, where that has not happened yet, because we are waiting for—
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 19 June 2024
Ariane Burgess
Edward Mountain may know more about this than I do, and he will have questions later, but, overall, some of the trigger is around the polluting effects of the industry. We are talking about solid waste, bath chemicals and pesticides, and that is what we are trying to reduce. That is a tricky thing. It comes back to the question that the convener or Rachael Hamilton asked about how we balance the expansion of the industry while we are trying to address its environmental impacts.
There will inevitably be more solid waste, because we are expanding the number of fish in the cages and the amount of chemicals and pesticides that need to be used to mitigate various problems such as sea lice is also expanding, although I understand—we will get on to a question about this soon—that there are attempts to use fewer chemicals and pesticides through using cleaner fish. That is what we are trying to do, and that is a challenging thing.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 19 June 2024
Ariane Burgess
Do you want to name anything specific?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 19 June 2024
Ariane Burgess
Could you just unpack the areas that are known, as hazy as they are?
09:45Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 19 June 2024
Ariane Burgess
My understanding is that the fishery boards and trusts have been collecting data on the impact of sea lice in a particular water body for a number of years, funded by salmon farming companies and the Scottish Government, often for the purpose of environmental management plans. If that data exists, what are the barriers to SEPA using that data to inform its enforcement decisions?
11:45Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 19 June 2024
Ariane Burgess
You have access to the data and are using it.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 19 June 2024
Ariane Burgess
I have heard differently in relation to cleaner fish disappearing. Maybe that is something that we can look at.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 18 June 2024
Ariane Burgess
Thanks for that. I will bring in Miles Briggs.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 18 June 2024
Ariane Burgess
That brings us to the end of our questions. Thank you for coming in and joining us online today. It has been helpful to hear the perspective of the councils.