Chamber and committees

You said that you are able to deal with situations in which the issue is outwith the skipper’s control. What are the tools to do that? Will there potentially be an exemption? If, for example, there are no cameras available because they are all being used or are on a lorry going across to the Western Isles, is that a situation in which the flexibility that you have, to use your words, could be used to put in place an exemption?

Right. You could use the exemptions in situations in which there is a failure of the monitoring system that is outwith the skipper’s control, and that would allow you to protect the business. For example, if that happened to someone pelagic fishing for mackerel, and they do that for only two months of the year, you could apply such an exemption to ensure that that business could continue.

I call Emma Harper.

Is the committee content to recommend approval of the instrument?

Members: No.

The committee is not agreed. There will be a division.

For

Allan, Alasdair (Na h-Eileanan an Iar) (SNP)
Burgess, Ariane (Highlands and Islands) (Green)
Forbes, Kate (Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch) (SNP)
Grant, Rhoda (Highlands and Islands) (Lab)
Harper, Emma (South Scotland) (SNP)
Whitham, Elena (Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley) (SNP)
Wishart, Beatrice (Shetland Islands) (LD)

Abstentions

Carson, Finlay (Galloway and West Dumfries) (Con)
Hamilton, Rachael (Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (Con)

Thank you. That completes our consideration of the instrument. I thank you, cabinet secretary, and your officials for attending the meeting.

We will suspend the meeting for a five-minute comfort break.

Our next item of business is consideration of two negative SSIs. Do members wish to make any comments on the instruments?

As there are no comments, can I presume that everyone is content to note the instruments?

Members indicated agreement.

Good morning, and welcome to the 11th meeting in 2024 of the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee. I remind all those who are using electronic devices to turn them to silent, please.

I have apologies from Ariane Burgess, who will join us later in the session.

We will begin with consideration of the draft Sea Fisheries (Remote Electronic Monitoring and Regulation of Scallop Fishing) (Scotland) Regulations 2024, which is an affirmative Scottish statutory instrument. I welcome to the meeting the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands, Mairi Gougeon, and her Scottish Government officials. Ellen Huis is head of inshore modernisation; Jane MacPherson is senior delivery lead for fisheries management strategy; and Helen Bain is a lawyer.

I invite the cabinet secretary to make an opening statement.

My take on it is that the skipper would be prosecuted and that it would be the same if the bycatch of a protected species was detected—they would be likely to be prosecuted.

Sorry; are you suggesting that events will be considered on a case-by-case basis?