Seòmar agus comataidhean

I am sorry, Mercedes, but we need to move on.

Yes.

I call Mercedes Villalba.

I invite Rachael Hamilton to wind up.

No, sorry.

The committee must now produce a report on the instrument. Are members content to delegate responsibility to me to sign off the report on behalf of the committee? It will be a brief factual report, with a link to this and last week’s Official Report.

Members indicated agreement.

I thank the cabinet secretary and her officials for attending today.

Good morning, and welcome to the eighth meeting in 2022 of the Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee. I remind members who are using electronic devices to switch them to silent. I welcome Jackie Baillie MSP, who joins us for this meeting.

Our first item of business is an evidence session on the Sea Fish (Prohibition on Fishing) (Firth of Clyde) (No 2) Order 2022. I welcome Mairi Gougeon, the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Islands, and her Scottish Government officials. Allan Gibb is the deputy director for sea fisheries at Marine Scotland. Dr Coby Needle, the chief fisheries advisor for Scotland, from Marine Scotland science, will give evidence remotely. Lucy McMichael is a senior lawyer.

I invite the cabinet secretary to make a brief opening statement.

Thank you, cabinet secretary. The order is a bit of a mess, and that is reflected in the unprecedented number of responses that we had to the call for evidence. There were concerns about the scientific evidence, data collection, monitoring, the socioeconomic and environmental impact of the closure and the proportionality of it.

The first area that we will ask questions about is the scientific evidence. The written and oral submissions from all sides of the argument suggest that there is a lack of evidence to support the removal of exemptions, the inclusion of creel and dive in the removal of those exemptions, and the assertion that spawning does not occur on muddy areas of the sea bed—the list goes on. What scientific evidence was used to inform your decision?

Okay. Thank you. However, that does not get away from the fact that, almost without exception, nobody agreed with the position that you had taken, and it was a very quick decision. Is that more about politics and the Bute house agreement that you had with the Greens? It was a knee-jerk reaction, it has not resulted in a reasonable set of regulations, and it puts at risk the economy and sustainability of coastal communities.