Chamber and committees

With regard to the Wine (Amendment) Regulations 2021, I wrote to the cabinet secretary, asking for an amended notification, as I felt that the level of information that we received was not sufficient to inform the committee’s considerations. A response was received yesterday and members have been sent a supplementary paper. I am now content that the information that the Scottish Government has provided is sufficient to inform parliamentary scrutiny.

As members have no comments to make, is the committee content for the provisions set out in the notification to be included in the proposed UK SI?

Members indicated agreement.

In the letter that I received from the cabinet secretary, she apologises for not providing the full 28 days for parliamentary scrutiny and says that the reason was confusion at official level about whether the SI met the criteria for a type 2 notification. I intend to write to the Scottish Government to ask for some form of guarantee that such confusion will not happen again and that the committee will not be left with so little time to scrutinise any future instruments properly.

Is the committee content to delegate authority to me to sign off a letter to the Scottish Government to inform it of our decisions today?

Members indicated agreement.

We move on to questions from Ariane Burgess on the national planning framework 4.

Yes.

Last, but not least, I invite Danny Renton to speak.

You made a suggestion about baselining information. It is a very general and broad statement to suggest that dredging has been solely responsible for destroying our inshore nurseries. That is why baseline information is so important in informing our decisions.

Shetland has done a huge amount to address the crowded sea argument and to remove unnecessary conflict. There are other areas of Scotland, such as the Solway Firth, where fixed and mobile gear fisheries work well together. Rachel Shucksmith, do you believe that we need legislation and additional funding to ensure that we have such successful partnerships across Scotland?

Local authorities are responsible for the development of shoreline management plans and so on. In March, my local authority in Dumfries and Galloway began a consultation to look at those challenges and to set out a list of policy options. Are you involved in that? Is there a national framework for policy options and the funding of pinch point and critical interventions that are required?

It looks like we have lost Danny Renton for the time being. The other witnesses are still available, so we will move on to—

That answer was quite clear. I call Rachael Hamilton, who will be followed by Karen Adam.

Thank you. We move to questions from Jim Fairlie.