Seòmar agus comataidhean

Okay. Maybe I should start from the other side. What is your understanding of the Bew review and the money that was identified as extra money? What is your understanding of the Bew review?

Okay, so it is likely that the date will slip.

Thank you. We will move on to animal health and welfare with a question from Emma Harper.

I was asking my question on the back of your consideration of that matter. After all, it is you, as minister, who will decide whether a licensing scheme is something that the Government will take on board—it is not for the committee to ask you to do that.

Cabinet secretary, you said that you will meet the Secretary of State for Scotland on Monday. What will be your main priority in that discussion?

I have a brief question about the next theme, which is national parks. The Government announced a commitment to have a new national park or parks. The process began back in 2022 and we have had two years to build up a framework to take that forward. As you know, Galloway was announced as the preferred option. That decision was some 24 months in the making, if you like, but the formal consultation that will advise you on your decision on whether to designate a national park will run for only 12 weeks. That is incredibly short, and Christmas and new year will be slap bang in the middle of that, so, in effect, the consultation period will be significantly less than 12 weeks.

In Galloway, there are real concerns that the process is now being rushed, given the uncertainties about the park boundaries and the planning authority status of the national park, along with a whole list of other concerns. Will you consider delaying the final decision, given that it appears that the timescales for the process that are now being announced are far shorter than had previously been imagined?

Would it not have been sensible, as part of the process, to carry out a full and thorough investigation of how existing national parks have impacted on policy outcomes?

We will now look at those themes in a bit more detail.

We are making good progress. I suggest that we take a 10-minute comfort break before coming back to tackle the big challenge of fisheries.

I suspend the meeting until 10:20.

The next theme is fisheries and Rhoda Grant has the first question.