Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee

Meeting date: Wednesday, September 4, 2019

Official Report 634KB pdf

Interests

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the committee’s 23rd meeting in 2019. I ask everyone to ensure that their mobile phones are on silent, please.

Agenda item 1 is declarations of interests. I formally welcome Emma Harper and Angus MacDonald to the committee. Before I ask them to declare their interests, I record my thanks and, I believe, the committee’s thanks, to John Mason and Gail Ross, who worked extremely hard on the committee since the start of this parliamentary session. Gail Ross was particularly helpful to me as the deputy convener. I thank her for the work that she put into that role.

I ask Emma Harper to declare her interests first.

Good morning, everybody. I am very pleased to be joining the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee, and I look forward to contributing to its work.

I do not have any financial interests to declare, but I am progressing a proposed member’s bill on livestock worrying—the protection of livestock (Scotland) bill—which would prevent attacks by out-of-control dogs. My proposed bill might become part of the committee’s work programme.

It is good to be back. I served on the former Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Committee for a number of years in the previous parliamentary session.

I own a non-domestic property in the Comhairle nan Eilean Siar area, which is situated on an estate that is likely to be the subject of a hostile buyout attempt by the local community in the near future. Other than that, I have nothing to declare.