Seòmar agus comataidhean

I apologise to my colleague Emma Harper. A lot of my questions have rolled over into questions 9 and 10 in our papers. My apologies.

I have a follow-up question to Emma Roddick’s. Through the whole Scottish Government ministerial and committee process, SEPA now has enhanced regulatory and monitoring regime powers. However, when Russel Griggs came before us as a follow-up to his report, he said that the aquaculture monitoring process

“is not joined up. It is not ... difficult; it is not rocket science”,—[Official Report, Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee, 22 June 2022; c 35.]

and that everybody needs to work together. Today, you have spoken quite a few times about the fish health inspectorate and other bodies. Is there a lack of continuity or cohesion between those organisations? I have been listening to the questions, and a lot of my colleagues have struggled to get answers. You have given them the answers that you can give from SEPA’s point of view, but you have also referred to other organisations. Is there still a problem in that regard?

On enforcement, have there been situations in which your organisation has felt that the results that have been found by the fish health inspectorate to be non-compliant show that you should really have withdrawn a licence or taken measures with certain fish farms? Has there been a lack of enforcement because you have not necessarily had the full powers—or do you have the full powers?

How are you working to increase enforcement capacity?

Yes. In addition, how many unannounced inspections did SEPA carry out for agricultural-based sites?

Does the regulatory framework apply to existing or new farms? In your introductory statement you mentioned the number of farms that were complying and the number that you still had to inspect. Can you put some numbers behind those statements?

Do you get penalties or fines if you do not meet the functions that you are charged with by the Scottish ministers?

Sixty per cent.

The figure that we heard in evidence—I think that it was on 5 June, but I cannot remember the name of the gentleman who gave it—was that, out of 210 farms, SEPA submitted 72 sea bed survey results. Does that mean that the data that you have collected, and which we are seeing, is behind? Is there real-time data that we can see?

Okay. The question is whether the environmental issues have been addressed. Will you expand on that? You have been talking about the numbers of inspections that you carry out and about SEPA’s obligations, but have the environmental standards improved with the expansion in the number of salmon fish farms that we have seen?