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 1138 contributions
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Christine Grahame
The topic is one of mine, but I thought that I would ask the question now, as we are already on it.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Christine Grahame
Let us take the maximum mortality rate, which is 25 per cent. How is that checked? I am trying to find out how that is verified independently, because I am not too happy about self-regulation. How is it done? When the figures come in, does someone in the fish health inspectorate say, “I think we should go and check all this stuff on site,” or do they simply check the data? How do they do it?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Christine Grahame
Professor Griggs asked for independent scientific evidence. That was one of his calls. Are you pursuing that?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Christine Grahame
We are looking to get actual data. You could go in and say, “Well, the fish are not too bad today,” but I have seen sea lice, and they can do horrible things to the fish. How do you know that the figures are right? That is what I am getting at. This is very important. You have given a figure of 15 to 25 per cent, which is a loss of quarter of the stock.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Christine Grahame
Who provides that data to you?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Christine Grahame
I want to pick up on the mortality rate, which you mentioned. It is connected to what Edward Mountain said about the use of antibiotics. What is the mortality rate as a percentage over whatever time?
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 10 May 2023
Christine Grahame
It is an afternoon for that.
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 4 May 2023
Christine Grahame
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I am terribly sorry to return to something that I raised last week, but I seek your guidance. Once again, at decision time we have only three Conservative members in the chamber. I wonder whether you would consider looking at the issue of attendance at Parliament in person rather than remotely, unless there is good reason for it.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 3 May 2023
Christine Grahame
He seems to be quite open to that.
I noticed that you said that the Scottish SPCA as an enforcement agency can only go off its own bat following a complaint. However, Mr Brignal tried to give us the impression—that wording is perhaps unkind. Mr Brignal said that the welfare of the animals at his track was much better than perhaps the welfare of those at GBGB ones, because those were amateurs racing well-looked-after animals—they were like family pets and so on. However, at the licensed tracks in England, where a lot of money is involved, the dogs are more like commodities than pets.
Mr Brignal gave us his opinion that, in fact, the animals that race at his track are well kept at home. I challenged him and said that he did not really know whether that is the case.
You said that you had to go to a home address. What did you find, given that you mentioned that the bare-minimum standards had been met?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 3 May 2023
Christine Grahame
They are kennelled all the time.