Chamber and committees

Yes—absolutely. In previous responses this morning, I have touched on the work that has been undertaken through the farmed fish health framework. You are right: we are five years on from its establishment. There was a refresh in 2020. The group is chaired by the chief vet, and it brings together the producers, regulators and innovation centres. Fish vets are part of that body, as well. At the time of the refresh, the group looked to refocus its priorities, and the key priorities to focus on were climate change, looking at treatments, and trying to address mortalities throughout that time.

I mentioned in a previous response that one of the key achievements within that time has been the standardised reporting of mortalities. The group has worked on and produced the 10 overarching categories into which they would fall. Work has been done in partnership with SAIC, as well—SAIC has been leading on that—in looking at some of the issues that we know that the industry faces. For example, that work has looked at harmful algal blooms. They are also looking at potentially trying to remove the barriers to vaccination.

A lot of work has been undertaken, and a lot of work is on-going. If the committee would like a fuller update on the work that has been undertaken through the farmed fish health framework, I would be happy to provide that.

The industry publishes the mortality rates by percentage and cause. That is not mandatory, but the industry has a mandatory requirement to record the information on mortality.

We received the Scottish Science Advisory Council report, and we are considering its recommendations and how we respond to it. We had quite a detailed discussion on it at the meeting of the Scottish Aquaculture Council last week, which was very helpful for our consideration.

You are talking about looking ahead and climate change. It is important that the frameworks that we have in place are adaptive and that we are able to look ahead and ensure that we have mechanisms that are flexible to the challenges that we might meet in the future. The farmed fish health strategic framework is important in that regard. A key strand of that work is looking at the challenges presented by climate change, and a few strands of work feed into that. We know that there will be more challenges in the future, so it is important that we have the capacity and capability to deal with them.

Yes.

We have not undertaken a risk assessment at the moment, but, as I have said, a huge number of pieces of work are under way, as should be clear from what has been set out against the recommendations as well as from previous inquiries. In that work, we are addressing some of the challenges that the industry currently faces and challenges that it will face in the future.

I come back to my previous response. It is not possible for me to give a definitive figure for what our mortality rate should be. Jill Barber highlighted that other countries are experiencing similar problems. We want to work to reduce the figure to the lowest possible level. That is why the work that we are doing through the farmed fish health framework and the other strands of work to try to identify the issues is vital.

I know that the suggestion has been made. Obviously, we have in place agreements with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities on how that funding will be distributed to coastal communities, and this is the agreement that we have in place here.

Of course, I welcome and am happy to consider any suggestions, but it is important to remember that, if we were to do what has been suggested, we would have to do so, and look at the community benefit, in conjunction with our local authority partners. We have been able to show how we, together with industry, can deliver this in some of the communities that I have mentioned, and I am keen to make sure that that work progresses.

I would be happy to provide the committee with more information on the implementation strategy, if it would find that helpful. We have timelines and reporting dates set out in that strategy that might be helpful for the committee to receive.

It is really important that communities are able to have their say. Indeed, we specifically recognised and mentioned that point when we talked about introducing and bringing forward a vision for sustainable aquaculture in Scotland. Of course, we are in the process of developing all of that, and I hope to be in a position soon to share it with the committee, but you will see the role specified in that.

It is the same in my community, your community or whatever community: when a proposal for development arises, it is right and fair that people have the ability to make their views known as the planning process proceeds. We recognise that within the planning process as it exists. Again, I come back to the work that has been taken forward through the consenting task group. The multilateral discussion that takes place at an earlier stage, and that we hope will involve communities, is a key element of the process. It is important that those discussions are held at the earliest possible stage in developments and that communities are engaged with as much as possible.

On your initial point about the status quo not being an option, I know that that came out clearly from the committees’ inquiries, and it is something that we agree with, as do industry and others. That also came out clearly in Professor Russel Griggs’s report on aquaculture. From the information that I set out against the 65 recommendations from those inquiries, which I have provided to the committee, you can see that, although some actions are still under way—I am not saying that we have solved all the problems or issues that were raised—we have made significant progress.

Part of that work has been in relation to SEPA’s implementation of its fin-fish framework, which has been taken forward in stages. That work has consolidated SEPA as the key regulator for the environment. Throughout that period, and since SEPA established its framework, we have seen the transfer of responsibility for some of the issues that you were talking about to SEPA—