Chamber and committees

In practice, do fishermen or NGOs write to Jane MacPherson and say, “We’ve got an issue with whelks—you need to look at this”? Is there a certain weight of evidence or whatever that triggers such consideration?

I have a final couple of questions.

Cabinet secretary, can you give us the reasons for commissioning Seafish to undertake the work in connection with the nephrops stocks in the North Sea and the west of Scotland?

Would that potentially indicate a lack of capacity in the marine directorate?

Both of you do, of course. [Laughter.] Thank you both for your contribution this morning.

I will briefly pause the meeting to allow for a short comfort break.

That was going to be my next question, so I appreciate that point.

Tim Eagle has a question on cod plans, and this is perhaps an appropriate time to ask it, given those comments.

Thank you, convener. I am a proud Gallovidian, from the nicest and most beautiful constituency in Scotland—

It is important to put it on record that the manifesto commitments made by some parties were based on what was there previously, not on what the Bute house agreement ultimately delivered, which was a national park based on biodiversity and climate change as priorities. I can tell you that that was certainly not the manifesto commitment made by the Scottish Conservatives, which was about sustainable economic development. Therefore, we have to be very careful to ensure that we recognise manifesto commitments for what they were and the fact that things changed when the Greens entered into the Bute house agreement.

I am a bit like Mr Whittle. I do not want to repeat a lot of what was said, but let me begin with the late Alex Salmond, who, in November 2011, 13 years ago, spoke at the opening of the new ports at Cairnryan, and talked about the three Rs of Scottish Government support for the region, which were roads, rail and regeneration. The then First Minister even announced the creation of a Scottish Government task force to work with local councils and other partners to explore the potential for the future of Stranraer. Sadly, that all fizzled out, like many other promises.

The First Minister, John Swinney, pledged to improve journey times on the road back in 2016. He has been followed by a succession of transport ministers. Humza Yousaf, Jenny Gilruth, Michael Matheson, Kevin Stewart, Màiri McAllan, Graeme Day and the current transport secretary, Fiona Hyslop, have all pledged action to upgrade this key artery between the UK and Europe. Eight years since petition PE1610, to upgrade the A75, was first lodged, we are still waiting for action.

The route was recognised in Sir Peter Hendy’s union connectivity review as one of the most financially beneficial roads in the UK, carrying billions of pounds-worth of goods every year. Talks are now, thankfully, finally being held between the respective Governments in the UK and Scotland. I hope that today we will find out whether the UK Labour Government is continuing with the commitment to fund studies on the A75 and to follow that up with funding to develop upgrades.

The chronic failure to invest in the A75 is shown tragically in the number of human lives that we have lost, and the safety record of the road is quite appalling. Brian Whittle touched on closures on the A77. To give you some examples, between January and September this year, the A75 was closed on nine occasions due to serious road traffic accidents. In the same date range, the road was closed, with diversions in place, on 11 occasions as a result of roadworks or storm damage. Those diversions resulted in hundreds of miles of detours on roads that are not fit to carry the traffic. Even scheduled closures are now overnight. They have to be overnight closures or full closures of the road because the trunk road is not wide enough to allow upgrades to be made to the surface and traffic to safely pass by, so it is a bit of a double whammy.

It is clear that we need to stop talking about this and get action to upgrade the A75, which has been identified as one of the most important roads in the whole of the UK. That needs to be done as a matter of urgency.

Thank you.