Seòmar agus comataidhean

I will pick up on the offshore issue, which was mentioned in the REC Committee’s report. A move further offshore seems to make sense, given that there is a bigger water flow, but risks come with that. Do you have any early thoughts on that? I say “early thoughts”, but we had hoped that progress would have been made. It is clear that there is a lot of work to be done. I am not quite sure of the timeline for that, but what are the Scottish Government’s thoughts on that? Do you still have concerns about what impact that approach might have on wild fish stocks and so on, or is it worth fast tracking?

Specifically, at the moment, do those bodies have powers to do unannounced inspections?

Perfect—thank you.

Good morning, cabinet secretary. I am acutely conscious that I was not here for a lot of the evidence-gathering sessions on this matter, so I am trying to pick up quickly what is going on.

One of the concerns, which Charles Allan spoke about a minute ago, was the co-ordination between the fish health inspectorate, APHA and local authorities in investigations relating to general welfare protections under the 2006 act. There were concerns that the co-ordination was a bit iffy. Do you have any thoughts on that and how it could be improved?

What is the status of the 2023-24 programme for government commitment to pilot a revised technical standard for Scottish finfish aquaculture?

So, where you might identify specific population trends or whatever in individual areas, you would be able to provide support for that, should the science evolve over time.

That would give reassurance to those who have raised concerns on that point.

I have a couple of wee comments. The letter that the minister sent to the committee said that the Scottish Government will help to support those who use traps with more information on courses et cetera. I do not believe that that information has been sent out. I do not know whether you have any further information on that, convener, or whether we can get any more information on it.

My other comment is on the continuing point about the business and regulatory impact assessment. There is an argument that, although a BRIA was done originally, it did not include the issue of snares and traps, so there probably needs to be another one.

Those are two issues that still concern me about the regulations.

I have just one more point that I had flagged up. The minister’s letter of 25 October mentioned ground-nesting bird surveys. One of the big issues is how we monitor whether the ban will have an effect on such birds. Could we potentially pick that up in a further letter and ask where the science and data are coming from on that? Obviously, the situation needs to be baselined so that, moving forward, we can tell what the impacts are.

Apologies, convener and cabinet secretary, for being late. My train was running slightly late this morning.

Some concerns have been raised about recovery of the cod species and about the fact that the plans are being merged together. How are you going to rectify some of the concerns that were raised in the consultation?