Rural Development Committee, 26 Jun 2001

Meeting date: Tuesday, June 26, 2001

Official Report 176KB pdf

---

Scottish Parliament Rural Development Committee Tuesday 26 June 2001 (Afternoon)

[The Convener opened the meeting at 14:04]

We have received apologies from Cathy Jamieson. As there are no other apologies, we will continue.

From last week's meeting, I understood that we would attempt to finish today's agenda before we went to the meeting of the Transport and the Environment Committee. The timetable that has been issued suggests that we are to discuss the agricultural strategy for a whole 40 minutes, even though none of us has had a chance to read it yet, and that we will then come back for 30 minutes to discuss the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Bill. Last week, we agreed that we would come back only if we had not managed to complete the business.

Unfortunately, the time scale has been slightly dictated by the difficulty that members had in getting hold of "A Forward Strategy for Scottish Agriculture". I did not get the document before half-past 10. That has left us with a time problem. I am happy to bring forward any items that we can fit in prior to 3 o'clock, but to bring forward items that will be in private session would complicate the agenda.

The intention is that, immediately after the Transport and the Environment Committee has taken evidence from the minister about sea cage fish farming, we will get the opportunity to discuss what this committee wants to do about that issue. That will then be communicated back to the Transport and the Environment Committee. The hope is that, if the two committees jointly discuss the issue with the minister but separately discuss their conclusions, an agreement can be reached on how the two committees should progress. I hope that we will be able to deal with that in as short an order as possible.

We will adjourn before 3 o'clock, so that we can all be in the coffee lounge behind the chamber in time for the beginning of the Transport and the Environment Committee's discussion of that item. We will have the opportunity to discuss our conclusions on sea cage fish farming immediately afterwards.