Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Official Report 534KB pdf

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Subordinate Legislation

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Public Appointments and Public Bodies etc (Scotland) Act 2003 (Amendment of Specified Authorities) Order 2017 [Draft]

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Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2016 (Supplemental Provision) Regulations 2017 [Draft]

Agenda item 2 is to hear evidence on two Scottish statutory instruments: the draft Public Appointments and Public Bodies etc (Scotland) Act 2003 (Amendment of Specified Authorities) Order 2017 and the draft Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2016 (Supplemental Provision) Regulations 2017. I welcome the Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform, Roseanna Cunningham; Andrew Ruxton, who is a solicitor in the Scottish Government; and Jillian Gardner, who is community assets action officer in the Scottish Government.

Does the cabinet secretary wish to make any comments?

There is not really very much to say about either instrument.

Do members have any questions on either instrument? I suspect that this will be nice and easy.

It would be a shame to have brought the cabinet secretary here and not to have asked even one question.

Do not feel obliged.

The draft Scotland Act 1998 (Specification of Devolved Tax) (Wild Fisheries) Order 2017—

I am sorry, but we will come to that order later.

All right. Am I jumping the gun?

Yes. It has been an early start for everyone this morning.

Do members have any questions on the two instruments under item 2? I see that they have none at all. That being the case, we will move to agenda item 3, which is consideration of motion S5M-07898.

Motion moved,

That the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee recommends that the Public Appointments and Public Bodies etc. (Scotland) Act 2003 (Amendment of Specified Authorities) Order 2017 [draft] be approved.—[Roseanna Cunningham]

Motion agreed to.

Agenda item 4 is consideration of motion S5M-07897.

Motion moved,

That the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee recommends that the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2016 (Supplemental Provision) Regulations 2017 [draft] be approved.—[Roseanna Cunningham]

Motion agreed to.

We will have a brief suspension to allow the cabinet secretary to change her officials.

09:22 Meeting suspended.  

09:23 On resuming—  

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Scotland Act 1998 (Specification of Devolved Tax) (Wild Fisheries) Order 2017 [Draft]

Agenda item 5 is to hear evidence on the draft Scotland Act 1998 (Specification of Devolved Tax) (Wild Fisheries) Order 2017. We are again joined by the Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform, who is accompanied on this occasion by Katie Joshi, who is a solicitor in the Scottish Government, and Simon Dryden, who is a marine superintendent in Marine Scotland.

Do members wish to ask any questions?

Okay. We are taking things in the right order now.

This question is a bit tangential. Can the cabinet secretary provide an update on when the wild fisheries bill will be introduced? Where are we in the process?

There will be a place for the wild fisheries bill in the current parliamentary session, but I do not want to pre-empt a future programme for government. It was never intended to be a year 1 bill, so it is not imminent. I would have expected it to be introduced in around year 3, potentially. A lot of the legislative programme is subject to Brexit consequentials, which we are looking at carefully.

As the bill is about raising tax, do you have any understanding or knowledge of what level the tax rate would be set at, even at this early stage?

The bill is not about raising tax; it is about reforming fisheries management. The order that we are discussing is about the transfer of a power to raise a levy, but it is not about the raising of the levy itself. It will simply allow a Scottish Government to do so in the future if it felt that it was appropriate. We have indicated that we do not consider that to be the case at the moment. I made it clear earlier this year that I was not minded to introduce a rod licence or other form of levy. We are talking about the devolution of a power to raise a levy that will be available to a Government in the future, should it feel that it was necessary.

But that is not your intention.

That is not my intention. The actual raising of a levy will not form part of the bill, which will allow for a reformed management structure. Only if there was a failure in an area of the management structure much further down the line might the Government have to step in, but that is not in our minds.

Thank you.

As members have no further questions, we move to agenda item 6, which is consideration of motion S5M-07900.

Motion moved,

That the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee recommends that the Scotland Act 1998 (Specification of Devolved Tax) (Wild Fisheries) Order 2017 [draft] be approved.—[Roseanna Cunningham]

Motion agreed to.

I thank the cabinet secretary and her officials for their brief attendance. I suspend the meeting to allow them to leave.

09:27 Meeting suspended.  

09:41 On resuming—  

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Public and Private Water Supplies (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2017 (SSI 2017/321)

Agenda item 7 is consideration of a negative instrument on public and private water supplies. Do members have any comments on the instrument?

There being none, is the committee agreed that it does not wish to make any recommendations in relation to the instrument?

Members indicated agreement.