Chamber and committees

Are you now talking about ping-pong between the two houses of the UK Parliament?

The other half of my question is, why the distinction?

Thank you.

On your point about the precautionary principle, I appreciate the need to restore peatland—I do not dispute that aim—but I come back to the question that I asked before. Is the scenario that we are envisaging when we talk about carbon emissions based on carbon from vegetation, or is it posited on the idea that peatland burns on the hills?

Is there evidence of wildfires in Scotland in which peat has burned on the hill?

Right. My other question comes back to an issue that Rhoda Grant, in particular, has already asked about. How do you measure an area that has wildly varying topography? How does somebody go about measuring a few acres of land where the depths of peat might vary wildly?

The committee looked at the Clyde cod seasonal spawn closure some time ago, and one of the issues that we heard about was the certain need for vessel monitoring systems and other forms of monitoring. Could you say a bit more about what monitoring has taken place?

I was going to ask about the timetable for amendments to the Agriculture (Retained EU Law and Data) (Scotland) Act 2020, which is not to be confused with the rural bill. Given the ping-pong that is going on with legislation at Westminster just now, I wonder whether you can explain the two pieces of legislation, particularly the agriculture bill and its relevance.

My other question is to ask for the timescale for that. Am I right in thinking that it is a two-year process? What kind of conversations are you having with fishermen? Fishermen seem to engage well with this form of science and there seems to be a lot of support for VMS in particular. What kind of engagement are you having with the fishing community about all of that?

Some specific details of that subject relate to the wider debate about agricultural policy. As you have alluded, there have been efforts to identify problems, and the crofting law slump exists. As I and many others have pointed out, a single shareholder in a common grazing has the right to veto environmental and agricultural projects. I do not want to list all the issues, but, in some places, croft tenancies are changing hands for truly ridiculous sums of money that clearly have nothing to do with agriculture. Is the Government beginning to give thought to some of those specific issues in advance of any legislation?