Chamber and committees

I will continue on the theme of fishing opportunities. The Communities Inshore Fisheries Alliance called for

“a recognition that some coastal areas may wish to change and develop their current operations through diversification into new stocks or a changing of scale of fishing operations.”

Do you believe that the JFS should be more explicit about providing opportunities to inshore fleets to encourage that diversification and a transition to lower-impact modes of fishing?

As Professor Harrison touched on this issue, I will direct this question at him. In your opinion, does the joint fisheries statement provide enough detail to explain how the fisheries policy authorities will achieve the objectives in the UK Fisheries Act 2020?

Thank you.

Thank you very much for that response. As no one else wants to come in on that question, I will move on.

I will direct my next questions to Charles Millar and then Helen McLachlan. Do you have concerns about the way in which the joint fisheries statement proposes to meet the sustainability, climate and/or bycatch objectives? Do you think that the proposed measures are enforceable? Are the timeframes that are set out adequate? You both referred to that earlier. Is the language strong enough to require rather than merely encourage actions to be taken?

Thank you very much, Charles. It is very helpful that you have pointed out that, on the one hand, we are trying to look at an ecosystem objective but, on the other, we are considering single species. Maybe that is to do with a greater awareness of ecosystems, the need to look at the interconnectedness of everything and how we take care of a single species within that.

I address my question about objectives to Helen McLachlan. I have focused on the sustainability, climate and bycatch objectives, but you are welcome to speak about any of the objectives if you want to.

I noticed that George Walker wanted to respond to an earlier question.

Thanks for that, George. It is great that you have brought that up, because the net zero ambition is also impacted on by supply chains and labour shortages, which Michael talked about earlier. There are a lot of questions about how we are going to do all that work.

Miles Briggs has some questions.

Throughout this morning, I have been making notes on the board and how you are modelling such great governance with the tenants, as you discussed with Meghan Gallacher. You also mentioned that there are staff members on the board; I think that having people with on-the-ground experience can only lead to good governance and direction for an organisation.

Mark Griffin is now able to join us, which is great. I will give him the opportunity to ask some questions.

Thank you. Mark, do you have any further questions?

Thank you for asking that question—it was great, seeing as we have been discussing that subject with the minister in looking at the private rented sector and the new deal for tenants.

That brings us to a close. So much has come out of the discussion this morning—it has been really helpful for us. The witnesses discussed the fact that there are worries among landlords about net zero and how we do all that retrofitting, and I look forward to hearing about that.

That takes me back to a point that Michael Cameron talked about, which relates not necessarily to net zero but to the challenges that landlords face with regard to the quality of the housing that they have to work with. As we go forward, we really need to push for good-quality, good-standard housing, especially in the light of the fact that the Government has plans to build 110,000 new homes over the coming 10 years, or maybe a slightly longer period, and 70 per cent of that will be earmarked for social housing.

That brings up another question—which we do not have time to go into in this session, but which we can maybe touch on in a year—which is whether the Scottish Housing Regulator has the capacity to regulate 70 per cent of 110,000 new homes. It seems that you are going to be growing, but you will—from what we have heard this morning—be growing from a really great position.

I thank the witnesses for their evidence today. We agreed at the start of the meeting to take the next item in private so, as we have no more public business today, I close the public part of the meeting.