Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee

Meeting date: Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Official Report 718KB pdf

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Petition

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Marine Fish Farms (Legislative and Regulatory Control) (PE1598)

The next item is public petition PE1598, by Guy Linley-Adams, on behalf of Salmon and Trout Conservation Scotland, on protecting wild salmonids from sea lice from Scottish salmon farms. The committee is invited to consider whether it wishes to take any further action in relation to the petition. The options include closing the petition, given that the issues that are raised in it have been addressed in our salmon farming in Scotland inquiry, and agreeing to take other action that the committee considers appropriate.

I agree that we should close the petition, given that the issues that are raised in it have been fully considered in the salmon farming in Scotland inquiry that we recently completed.

Although I agree that the petition should be closed in the light of the significant work that the committee has done on the issue, it would be prudent for the committee, during the remainder of the parliamentary session, to consider whether the recommendations in the report that we produced have been implemented or taken on board by the Government. We should do that at some point before the end of the session.

Does anyone else have comments?

I take on board the comments that Jamie Greene has made. I do not remember putting in a sunset clause, but I am quite relaxed about his comments.

We will write to the petitioner to say that we have closed the petition, and we will inform the Public Petitions Committee of what we have done. Do members agree to that approach?

Members indicated agreement.

11:32 Meeting continued in private until 11:51.