Seòmar agus comataidhean

Good morning, and thank you for coming.

What is the Scottish Government’s understanding of how the UK Government reached the decision to require the board to hold a regular vote at least once every five years and not more frequently than that?

If levy payers reject the board’s proposals on how the levy will be spent, how can the levy payers influence the proposals? Can they make counter proposals? What is the process?

Thanks. That is helpful.

Do you expect the requirement for Scottish boats to match that for English boats?

To clarify, in relation to how the Government will achieve the bycatch objective, do we need to wait until the consultation on the future catching policy has concluded?

I understand that the economic link that was announced in November last year requires only 50 per cent of catches that are made by Scottish boats to be landed in the UK, and that that is less than the requirement for their English counterparts. Do you intend to match the English rules, or will the requirement for Scottish boats remain lower than that for English boats?

The 2020 act states that the Administrations must meet the bycatch objective, part of which requires that

“the catching of fish that are below minimum conservation reference size, and other bycatch, is avoided or reduced.”

The joint fisheries statement does not seem to include any plans for how that will be done. The future catching policy, which was published last week, states that, in the case of undersized fish, “we propose allowing discarding”. Could you explain how those two positions are consistent with each other?

Do you think that the principle of transparency and accountability is important in relation to those plans?

While we are on the subject of fisheries objectives, I wonder whether we could hear from Elspeth Macdonald and Elaine Whyte on whether their organisations have proposed any specific plans or policies that are needed to meet the climate change objective.

I note that the English and Welsh Administrations have already agreed that fisheries management plans should be developed for key fisheries such as the scallop dredge fishery and the largely unregulated wrasse fisheries. It sounds like you are not able to commit to those within the JFS. Are you considering that? Do you have an idea of when you will be able to commit to establishing and delivering plans for those fisheries?