Chamber and committees

When will the announcement be made?

Will it be a matter of days?

When you say medium to long term, how many years are you talking about?

Are the labs at the University of Aberdeen available? Our understanding was that the equipment was there, but the labs themselves were not working.

You mentioned 2009-10. Since 2009-10, the output of all other comparable institutions has increased, with a slight dip in the past two years. Since 2009-10, Marine Scotland science’s output has dipped, so it is not in line with international institutions. Could that be due to the structure of the organisation, and can you reconsider that structure? Is it independent enough? Can it raise enough funds from outwith Government? In real terms, funding has fallen to—

Okay.

I guess that what I am trying to say is that, at the moment, abattoirs are clinging to the edge by their fingertips. We are struggling to get others in place—which is what we really want to happen—and the cost increases just push the direction of travel the wrong way. Is there anything that you can do, especially for island communities but also for other communities that are a long way from the centre—we have been talking about Skye abattoir and so on for a long time now—to mitigate the challenges that are posed not only by the cost increases but by some of the other challenges, if we are to be realistic about making that increase in provision a reality?

We are halfway through the financial year, and £3 million of island programme money has not yet been allocated. Why is that?

Okay.

This group of amendments deals with minor and technical aspects of the proposed legislation.

The first four amendments are technical adjustments to the bill’s wording. My amendments, which were proposed by the Law Society of Scotland, seek to change certain phrases such as “is to” and “are then to” to “must”, to make the bill clearer and make it easier for members of the public to understand its requirements and intentions. They would remove ambiguity and strengthen the bill.

On amendment 54, section 12, on interpretation of the legislation, sets out definitions covering central aspects of the bill, such as the word “advertise” and the phrases “first owner” and “police officer”. The intention of the section is to define the meaning of those terms, but amendment 54 seeks to remove it entirely.

My amendments in this group seek to ensure that the bill is implemented as intended and to remove ambiguity of language and clear up interpretation. I ask members to support my amendments at this time.

I move amendment 64.