Chamber and committees

Thank you for that evidence.

Given that there are no more questions, we move to the fifth item on our agenda, which is consideration of motion S6M-01817.

I invite the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government to move the motion.

Motion moved,

That the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee recommends that the Relevant Adjustments to Common Parts (Disabled Persons) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2021 [draft] be approved.—[Shona Robison]

Motion agreed to.

I wish to note that the consultation analysis shows that

“Most individuals, environmental organisations and fisheries or other board/trust respondents supported the Code but would like fish farms to be regulated further and are concerned about enforcement of implementation of the Code.”

Concerns about regulation included several requests

“that the Code should do more to manage and control”

or phase out

“the use of ADDs”—

acoustic deterrent devices—and replace them with benign methods of predator control.

Referring to aquaculture production businesses, concerns about enforcement included

“Concerns around non-compliance and inconsistency of self-reporting by APBs; Concerns about inadequate penalties for non-compliance”

and challenges regarding the

“practicalities of implementing the Code”,

including

“timescales and content of reporting”

and

“gaps or contradictory guidance”.

As the consultation analysis report goes on to say, several respondents indicated their view that

“more of the Code should be in the form of ... mandatory requirements, rather than guidance.”

We need to ensure that fish farms operate sustainably in order for them to continue providing jobs and benefits for coastal communities in the long term.

I am content to note the instrument, but I urge the Government to review the code on a regular basis and to update it as necessary to ensure the use of best available practice, underpinned by scientific findings and new developments.

I want to touch on the UK Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill, which has provisions to create an animal sentience committee to advise the UK secretary of state. How might SAWC engage with the committee, should it come to be? What are your views on the provisions in place in Scotland to have regard to animal sentience, especially given that the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union no longer applies. Article 13 of the treaty stipulates that, when

“formulating and implementing”

policy,

“full regard”

should be paid to the

“welfare requirements of animals”.

I gave some examples and talked about strengthening controls on sea lice, wrasse and escapees from fish farms, but I also wanted to get a sense of the impact that the announcements in the PFG and the shared policy programme might have on your work programme. You have begun to outline that, but perhaps you could say a little about controls on sea lice, wrasse and escapees first. I am aware, though, that we have already touched on the issue of fish farms quite a bit.

The 2021-22 programme for government and the shared policy programme with the Scottish Greens include many commitments that relate to animal welfare, including to strengthen controls on sea lice, wrasse and escapees from fish farms; to consider whether the Scottish SPCA should be given extra powers to investigate wildlife crime; and to explore the introduction of a public register of species licences. How can SAWC support the areas of legislative policy development that are set out in the programme for government and the shared policy programme? Will those announcements have an impact on your work programme? I realise that that is a very big question, so a high-level response will be welcome.

I have another question on a different topic. I noticed from your work programme that you will be looking at abattoirs. What are your views on local and mobile abattoir provision? Would such provision help to improve animal welfare and, if so, how? What other benefits would local abattoirs provide for animal welfare?

Thank you for joining us. I hope that the technology works throughout the meeting.

I am pleased to see that your work programme includes the task of preparing a report on welfare on salmon farms. Could you please tell us whether and how that will build on the report of March this year by Compassion in World Farming and OneKind, “Underwater Cages, Parasites and Dead Fish: Why a Moratorium on Scottish Salmon Farming Expansion is Imperative”? Do you believe that there is sufficient reason to put in place a moratorium on new salmon farms until animal welfare concerns are addressed? If not, would you propose strengthening aquaculture regulations through legislation to bring the legislation on welfare for fish more closely into line with that for other species?

I am not sure who to direct the question to, but maybe Cathy Dwyer can help me with that.

Does anyone else wish to respond to Willie Coffey’s questions?

Thank you. It is a bit tricky to see, but I do not think that any member wants to come back on anything, so we will move on.

I thank the witnesses for joining us and for bringing their perspectives. Their contributions to our scrutiny sessions have been useful.

I suspend the meeting to allow a changeover of witnesses.

Welcome back. We will now hear from our second panel on the draft Valuation and Rating (Coronavirus) (Scotland) Order 2021. I welcome to the meeting Jonathan Sharma, policy manager for local government finance at the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, and Kevin Fraser, principal officer for local taxes at Perth and Kinross Council. We will move straight to questions. If our witnesses wish to respond to a question or contribute to the discussion, they should type R in the BlueJeans chat function. The chat function should not be used to write responses to questions, as they will not be recorded.

We are covering a range of themes this morning, starting with the Scottish Government’s rationale for the measures and moving on to principles of taxation. We will then cover parliamentary procedure, workload issues, the impact on local government revenues and other types of support. Some of that may come out earlier in the discussion, but I wanted to give you an overview of what we hope to cover this morning.

I will start with a question that I asked the previous panel. The committee understands that many businesses, particularly small ones, have been hit very hard by the pandemic and that the proposed order might feel like another obstacle to recovery. However, we also understand the Scottish Government’s perspective that market-wide economic changes to rateable values should be considered only at the point of revaluation, to ensure fairness to all ratepayers, not all of whom have the resources to lodge appeals.

Do the witnesses believe that MCC appeals are an appropriate route for supporting businesses in the face of such a widespread impact or would they like to see alternative forms of business support that might be fairer or more effective?