Chamber and committees

Absolutely. Rhoda Grant touched on that issue, too. We have to ensure that we have in place the basic infrastructure, transport connectivity, housing in rural areas and so on. You are absolutely right. Aside from the fish farmers themselves, this is an industry that pretty much touches every part of Scotland, whether rural or not. I recognise the importance of your point.

I have not been alerted to any potential loopholes. As I said, the fish health inspectorate undertakes inspections and monitoring.

Jill, do you have any further information on that?

We would not be content with that, and I do not think that anybody would be content with it, if you were to look at the figure in that way. Obviously, we want mortality levels to be at the absolute lowest possible level. A variety of factors can have an impact throughout the cycle, but we would not be content with that and would want them to be at the absolute lowest level.

I obviously want Scotland to produce the highest-quality product, but I disagree with the assertion that we are somehow more relaxed in our regulation. We can certainly make improvements to the process, which is why we are undertaking the programme of work that we have set out with the consenting task group to streamline the process. It is not about deregulating; we want to make sure that our regulation system and consenting processes are efficient, effective and transparent. It is not a fair comparison to say that we sit below the Faroe Islands and Norway when it comes to regulation.

Your question is in relation to the penalty fees that we receive for escapes. We have already made commitments as to what we would look to do with any increase in penalties, and work on that is on-going. We have also outlined some of the work that we need to do in the implementation plan for the wild salmon strategy that we published earlier this year. We said initially that we would be looking to ring fence any moneys received from that to support research into wild salmon and any work that needs to be taken forward on that. However, that work still needs to be undertaken, so we have not made any firm decisions yet.

If the committee intends to do more work on that and wants to tease out some of those issues in more detail and has thoughts on particular areas, I am more than happy to consider that. As I said, we are undertaking that work. We need to do the work on penalties, but we need to do that in the context of what we said that we would do, and that will feature in any of the discussions that we have in the future.

Do you mean some of the key industry bodies and companies that we have?

We have Mowi, Bakkafrost, and Scottish Sea Farms.

That is a really important point, and it is something that we are keen to take forward through our vision for aquaculture, too. We recognise the important role that communities play and want to make sure that their voices are heard, and we are looking to enhance that through the vision for aquaculture. That work is under way.

We talked earlier in the session about the consenting task group and its work, which has a strong focus on communities and how we can engage with all the relevant parties at an early stage in the process. Of course, we will want to monitor how that and the applications pilot work over the summer, and we will take any learning that we get as a result. At the moment, communities have the ability to put forward their views through the planning process, but those other bits of work will really help to enhance a community’s role and involvement as early as possible in the process.

As for the community benefits, we have the sea bed lease fees from Crown Estate Scotland. Those fees, which will be increasing, go to local authorities for community benefit purposes.

The member is absolutely right about the well-paid jobs and, in particular, the importance of aquaculture to some of our most remote communities and island communities. Work is on-going on this matter, and we are working with the industry to address some of those challenges.

You are, without a doubt, right about the pressures of housing. A couple of years ago, I visited Colonsay specifically to meet the community there and talk about a housing project that was being done in conjunction with Mowi but that was also using some of the funds that we had made available. It is not the jobs in an area that are the problem, but the housing that is holding people back from moving into communities.

Those pieces of work are really important, and the approach is definitely something that we want to continue to develop. Apart from the project in Colonsay that I visited, there is, I believe, a project in Rum that is doing the same thing. All of that will factor into the work that is being taken forward through the remote rural and islands housing action plan. That work is being led and developed by the Minister for Housing, but I will, of course, engage closely with him on it as it develops.