Chamber and committees

Given your position, do you think that the marine directorate has managed to get through the challenges of EU exit? Have the new policies been successfully delivered, or are they in the course of being delivered?

That is really helpful. Thank you.

I will bring in Michel Kaiser very briefly.

I am glad that you gave that answer before I asked the question, because it sounds better coming from you than coming from me as convener. Thank you.

Did you want to respond, Elspeth?

Okay. We will move on to a question from Emma Harper.

There is a lack of trust.

I suppose that we have touched on this already. Up to now, the marine directorate has often used its own ships and boats to collect information, but it does not seem like rocket science to suggest that a way of improving coverage and reducing costs would be for the industry to provide the samples. When we were in the labs on Monday, we saw scallop shells that had been collected for ageing. Industry provided those shells instead of marine directorate scientists going out and collecting them themselves. That was a win-win. What, then, do you think the barriers are to asking industry to provide the samples?

Okay. I will bring in Emma Roddick, but I know that one or two stakeholders still want to add to the previous responses, so I will bring them in after that.

Before we move on to the themes of compliance and enforcement and collaboration and co-management, I will bring in Elspeth Macdonald.

We are fast approaching the end. I would like to think that we could tie up in the next five or 10 minutes. We have one last theme. We have covered most of it already, but Colin Beattie has a question on budget information and scrutiny.