Chamber and committees

Yes. I ask Elspeth to respond to my question.

That was a useful exploration of implementation. I do not think that I have time to go into aquaculture, convener, so I will leave that to you.

We have not chased him off.

I want to go back to the deputy’s convener’s point about a just transition. The committee spends a lot of time thinking about what a just transition will look like for the energy sector. We have also considered how a just transition is embedded in the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009. Is it important to embed those principles in this approach? Perhaps we could ask our sector representatives whether there was, say, a transition when inshore fisheries moved away from scallop dredging. Could other economic opportunities arise from that? Is it important that a just transition approach is applied to that? To take salmon farming as an example, in the future, might there be the retiral of open-pen salmon farms, if you can imagine that, and a move towards other technologies? How do you take workers and sectors with you?

Elspeth Macdonald, do you want to react to my comment? I should say that, a number of years ago, I spoke to a scallop dredger who was interested in making a transition, but to what I would not want to suggest.

Can you forecast the capital requirement for the digital strategy or can you give us an indication of the scale of that for beyond 2024-25?

Yes, and if at some point over that six to nine months there is more clarity, we will be interested in having the details shared with us, too.

I want to move on and ask about pay and pay negotiations. Obviously, you are not able to discuss in any detail where you are at this point or any likely or potential pay award for the next year, but perhaps I can frame the question by asking you about last year. As I think that you said in your initial comments, you budgeted for a 3 per cent pay increase, but you landed with 6 per cent. Obviously, that will have been extremely welcome for your staff, and you already explained the bottom loading that took place for staff on lower salaries. What have you learned from last year’s pay negotiation process? How does it feed into your assessment of a potential pay award for this year? Critically, what are you budgeting for at this point and, as a result, what are you asking the SCPA to support you with?

Thank you, chair, and good morning to the panel. Can I ask you about the capital budget? The whole of the capital budget is going on the digital strategy in the next year. I take it that there will no other capital requirements for the next year beyond the digital strategy. Is that right?

Those are useful and full answers. I will hand back to you, chair.

We have a motion to recommend that the Parliament annul the instrument. This might seem an obvious question, but what would be the impact if the motion were agreed to? Would it just mean that fines would stay at £200 and would not go up, or are there wider implications?

Yes.