Seòmar agus comataidhean

The tenant farming commissioner has specialist skills as part of his role. What specialist skills should the proposed land and communities commissioner have? Should one of the requirements be that they have not been a large landowner, and do you agree that we should exclude someone on that basis?

So it should be the best person for the job, whatever they have done in the past, and whatever their politics?

Mark Ruskell has a series of questions.

I am sure that you are right. Landowners of all stripes, whether they are private landowners, public landowners or community landowners, must all fall under the same obligations.

The next questions come from Douglas Lumsden.

If there are no other questions, I will come in with a few, as well as a comment. Having first visited 801, as it was then, when it had wooden windows and dummy stanchions on the back to secure it to the harbour, which had to be taken off, and a bulbous nose and all the rest of it, it is interesting to see the vessel coming into service six years after it was first launched. I have also seen Jim McColl, Tim Hair, David Tydeman and now John Petticrew in the chair all saying the same thing, but slightly differently. Tim Hair swore that taking on a new warehouse next to the yard would save the day and that he would know what inventory he had taken over. I am still as confused, having been looking at the matter for six years, about where all the issues lie.

One issue that concerns me is that we have ended up paying £82.5 million against a £96 million contract for 18 stage payments on the two boats, where 15 of those payments had been made when one of the boats had not even been built. I am slightly confused about where we are going with this, and I am slightly confused about who is learning the lessons. There are a lot of lessons to learn.

I have a quick question for David Dishon. When the Glen Sannox was recently undergoing its sea trials, I am assuming that the vessel was insured. Could you tell me how much it had been insured for?

Sorry to cut you off in mid-flight. I see Rhoda Grant sitting quietly on the screen, as she has done for this whole evidence session, and I am really worried that, as the clock ticks down, she will not get to ask her questions. I would then have to deal with that. Therefore, I would be grateful if we could have succinct questions and answers where possible, then no one will be upset.

I am sure that we can ask separately about project domino.

Before we leave the issue of small vessels, I have a question about David Tydeman’s evidence. He said that building small vessels would cost 25 to 30 per cent more in Scotland than it would anywhere else in the world. Was he right or wrong?

Some people get fined according to the size of their assets. Indeed, I think that speeding fines, in particular, are graduated.

Anyway, I will move on to lotting. We have heard lots about small-scale sales being stopped, and about how the move might affect crofting estates where a house under a crofting tenure or, indeed, a croft itself could be sold and purchased under the statutory procedure. Could small sites that are not on the register of community interests in land still be transacted? Would that allow people to buy plots for, say, their horses or their garden ground that owners regularly look to sell?

No, I am talking about larger landowners divesting some of their holdings to allow communities to flourish. When we visited Atholl Estates, we heard that it was worried about what would happen with small-scale transactions, and we heard the same from Buccleuch Estates.

Perfect. Douglas Lumsden has a question, and then I will come to Monica Lennon.