Rural Affairs Committee, 31 Oct 2000

Meeting date: Tuesday, October 31, 2000

Official Report 233KB pdf

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Diseases of Fish (Control) Amendment (Scotland) Regulations 2000 (SSI 2000/330)

We have one piece of subordinate legislation to deal with today. Members should have a copy of the regulation and of the correspondence that took place between the Subordinate Legislation Committee and the Executive during that committee's consideration of the regulation. The Subordinate Legislation Committee report was published on Friday. An extract from it was posted to members at the weekend. Did all members receive it? The report draws our attention to the Executive's letter, which provides and explains the draft scheme referred to in the regulations.

The petition from the National Farmers Union of Scotland raises the question whether the amendment to the regulations will make any significant reduction to the difficulties faced by fish farmers. If the committee is content with the regulations, we will not need to draw the Parliament's attention to them. However, if the committee is not content, we will need to seek further explanation at next week's meeting, which is the last at which we can consider this instrument as we must report by 13 November.

In a ministerial statement that was made in Parliament before the instrument was laid, the measure was discussed as something desirable and a move forward in dealing with infectious salmon anaemia. The instrument should be welcomed.

I assume that members are content with the instrument—

As it exists?

Yes. Are members agreed that the committee is content with the instrument and that it wishes to make no report to Parliament?

Members indicated agreement.

That leaves us with the issues raised in the petition that pertain to this matter. Does the committee wish to make further comment on the petition at this time, or should we seek further legal briefing on the petition before we pursue it? As it makes demands about compensation, perhaps a briefing from the Executive would be valuable.

Given that the situation is being altered by the instrument that we have just considered, might it not be worth while to ask for the views of the NFUS on the new regulations?

It might be sensible to ask the NFUS for any further comments relating to the petition as well as seeking a briefing from the Executive.

I would have thought that ISA was in the same category as a disease such as foot-and-mouth, for which farmers receive compensation. Even though the disease might now be downgraded, when it was in force, all the fish had to be slaughtered.

The instrument will change that situation. There will be no more total slaughter.

I know, but what about the total slaughter that has already happened?

I am not sure that we can change anything retrospectively.

It might be helpful for a minister to come before the committee and explain the new arrangements to us again. We can also ask the NFUS to submit a short paper to the committee with issues that we could raise with the minister.

Do you wish to invite the minister back?

Yes. Or we could ask for a written submission from the minister containing all the information that we need.

We might find ourselves in difficulties with this issue, which has been debated over a number of years. The cage fish farmers are insisting on compensation for what is after all a disease among their stock. The question then is whether they were instructed to destroy fish that were not contaminated with the disease, which is a legal argument that is beyond our remit. If we were to compensate fishermen for their loss, we would need to bear in mind our previous discussion about scallop farmers, who have received no compensation. As many scallop farmers are suggesting that the contamination has come from the fish farms, would we be compensating the fish farms for perpetrating a disease that is affecting the shellfish men? We should stand back a little.

It would be shrewd for us to obtain further information from the Executive and further comments from the NFUS, and to reconsider the issue.