Chamber and committees

Can I stop you there? We are straying off the budget. These are questions that were posed at a previous evidence session, so—

The lack of vets or anything like that has not had an impact; the increase is simply down to staffing and laboratory costs.

I have a couple of questions. Who evaluates the delivery of the service in Scotland? What is looked at in the evaluation? Prior to considering increasing the costs, was any additional work done to look at whether the service is being delivered efficiently? Were any mitigation measures considered before it was decided to increase the costs for industry?

The annual strategy—the annual plan that is set out.

You talked about assessments. We heard about the mismatch between what the Government wants the marine directorate to be and what it actually can be, given the resources. Mackerel is the most valuable stock for the Scottish fishing industry, accounting for a third of the value of total landings. There used to be a really strong pelagic team in the fisheries team in the marine lab, but the stock assessments are now being led by the Dutch, so people in the marine laboratory who have in the past invested a huge amount of interest in the fisheries are no longer doing that work.

The Government’s ambition and desire to be an international leader do not appear to be matched by available resources. That is almost a direct quote from what we heard during the round table. What is your response to that?

It would be helpful to find out exactly what the situation is, because I believe that there are also on-going discussions with the James Hutton Institute. It would be good to get a clear indication not only of the future of that site but of what has been put in place in the meantime.

Much of the information that we have been looking at comes from Paul Fernandes of Heriot-Watt University. In a paper that he produced, he said that what we are seeing

“indicates that the fisheries research at MSS, unlike equivalent institutions, has ... been in decline for over a decade and is now at very low levels.”

As a result, he said,

“the amount and quality of research in the traditional core areas of fisheries has diminished.”

Do you not agree with him that,

“Without adequate understanding of their demise, nor appropriate scientific research into how they might recover, their status, and those of the rural and island communities that depend on them, remain in the balance”?

On that point, can you give us a better indication of timescales? The issue surrounding inshore fisheries groups was raised by the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee in the previous session of Parliament, but there does not seem to have been a lot of progress. You say that there will be a consultation, but what is your target for getting final details about how our regional inshore fisheries groups will look?

We move to consider the broader themes of the rural affairs budget and other overarching rural issues. We come first to questions from Rachael Hamilton.

I think that Rachael Hamilton still has a brief question.