Chamber and committees

I certainly hear some of that from businesses that I have engaged with that have been awarded funding. Of the criticisms of the scheme that I have talked about, I know that the period of time involved is a particular issue. George Burgess is probably closer to some of the detail on that, but the coming period is important, because it gives us the chance to reflect on the feedback and look at what changes, if any, need to be made to the scheme to ensure that it is fit for purpose and does what we want it to do.

It might not be as long a period as that. As George Burgess touched on in his response, we could be looking to open an application round so that the funding could be spent at an earlier stage.

It is in 2024.

It will be from April 2024.

Do you mean the knowledge transfer and innovation fund and the types of projects that that has been supporting?

I will ask Iain Wallace to come in with more information on that. I know that Marine Scotland is working on its delivery plan for the coming year at the moment, so I will be able to provide more information after the meeting.

The enforcement capability that you are talking about is vital. The committee will, no doubt, be aware of the vessels and enforcement capabilities that we have. We have two aeroplanes, three marine protection vessels and two science vessels. In the current financial year, we have invested in two rigid inflatable boats, which cost in the region of £250,000. We are continuing to invest in that capability.

Even if we were to increase that resource, however, there is no way in which we could patrol or police the marine environment along the whole coastline of Scotland, because of its sheer scale. I provided the committee with information previously on how we undertake enforcement. We use a risk-based system that is based on the intelligence that we receive, and that dictates how we task those vessels and where they go.

I hope that that provides a bit more information. I think that we have also moved to a system of proactively publishing the information on what we are doing on compliance, vessel boardings and things like that.

I will hand over to Iain, who might be able to provide some more information.

First, I absolutely appreciate and understand what you say about connectivity and so on. The spend across other portfolios on things such as transport and housing is vital to that. We need to make sure that we are tackling those issues, and the national islands plan really brings all of that together to see how we can tackle them as a whole. There is no easy solution to any of this, so we have to work across the piece on it.

Your main question was about—

Again, I would be happy to come back to the committee and provide the list of projects and successful applicants to the fund this year, if that would be helpful. Some changes were made to the marine fund Scotland. It is the second year in which we have run it, and it is always interesting to get feedback. If you hear anything in relation to further adaptations that we need to make to the scheme, I am more than happy to consider that feedback. We obviously want to make sure that the scheme aligns with our blue economy vision and our ambitions in that regard. We funded 60 projects this year with a budget of £14.5 million, and that levered in about an extra £39 million as a result. That is a huge amount.

In December, I met the Clyde Fishermen’s Trust to discuss the vision document that you talked about. I am looking at that at the moment, and I want to go through it in more detail. I am keen to work with the trust.

I am happy to come back and provide the specifics on what has been funded through the scheme so far. I am also happy to take any suggestions as to how the scheme can be improved for future years.

As the fisheries minister, I am acutely aware of the issues that the industry faces and I have touched on them in my previous responses. I will continue to highlight the support that we have available, which will continue. The marine fund Scotland is an example of that support. I also touched on the work that we are taking forward on the blue economy and the outcomes that we will see from that. The food that our fishers provide is vital, and we want to continue to make the most of it.

It is also important to remind the committee of the economic link that has been introduced, because we want to see the value from what is caught in Scotland being landed into Scotland. We touched on offshore renewables and the HPMA network, but I would not want the committee to take from that that fisheries are not equally important in the discussions. They are, and it is my role to ensure that they remain as such.

I am happy to come back to you with more detail on that. There are other figures in that table. The figure of £33 million relates to the convergence, and a figure of about £30 million relates to Marine Scotland and the agriculture and rural economy directorate. There was a mixture of recruitment control across the portfolio.

I do not know whether Iain Wallace can provide more information on the figure for Marine Scotland.