Chamber and committees

Yes.

Good morning, cabinet secretary. I want to dig a little bit more into mortality.

Committee members have a letter from Animal Equality UK that sets out the scale of fish deaths. The annual fish mortality rate last year was the highest since 1991. More than 17 million fish died on salmon farms last year, with more than 10 farms reporting 50 per cent-plus mortality rates. Nobody is saying that farmers want that many dead fish but the fact is that there are that many dead fish. How can we allow growth and practice that results in so many dead animals to continue?

If the industry is growing but production is going down and mortality is going up, can that be sustainable?

My apologies, convener. The questions can go their own way.

I note that Mr Allan’s comments on mortality are strikingly similar to those that he made to the REC Committee in 2018. Had you been asked then to imagine that you were giving evidence in 2024, would you have thought that things would have improved more by now and that you would have been able to talk about a better picture than the one that we have at the moment?

It must be difficult to regulate and enforce good welfare standards if there is not consensus on what good welfare for farmed fish is. Is there an objective, desire or aspiration to come up with specific welfare standards for farmed fish?

When the committee went to visit a fish farm, the 2006 definitions were up on the wall, and various members asked questions about how those are adhered to, particularly in relation to allowing animals to explore their natural behaviours. Where that cannot be directly applied to fish that are in containment, would it make more sense, including for people who have to ensure that welfare, that the standards are applicable and achievable for the animals that they look after?

Gordon MacRae and Carolyn Lochhead both mentioned that the money that is being used to mitigate the bedroom tax at the moment could be better spent. Do you have particular ideas on where it could be spent?

I want to tie together a few of the points that have been made about the role of the private rented sector. Do you have an opinion on whether the social sector could cater to a transient population?

The Scottish Government has called for the UK Government to take an active role in addressing the housing emergency, through the abolition of the bedroom tax and the restoration of local housing allowance rates. Do you agree? If so to what extent could that help us target the housing emergency?

My question is for Gordon MacRae. The Shelter Scotland submission to the committee stated that the housing system was

“biased—reflecting the wider social structures of oppression and inequality”.

Could you expand on that and give us an idea of how that bias can be addressed?