It certainly sounds like it. What work has been undertaken specifically on strengthening co-management processes?

I have a question about the rationale for regulation. What evidence is there on the extent to which wildlife traps are used and the associated impacts on animal welfare and biodiversity? What traps are used?

Can you provide an update on climate change plans for Scottish agriculture, particularly on emissions targets?

Has progress on the plan been derailed in any way? Do you feel that it is progressing in a timely manner and in the way that was expected?

What progress has been made on the 12 action points that are set out in the future fisheries management strategy?

In relation to the spring traps and the live capture bird traps that you mentioned, what conclusion was reached that required additional regulation?

Although we should not be in any doubt about the scale of the challenges in delivering the plan, it is welcome that the services will now be rebuilt in a phased way to ensure that they are safe, sustainable and fit for the future. Given the importance of these developments, will the minister provide assurances that she will keep Parliament updated as the delivery period progresses?

Our salmon industry is a national asset that provides a nutritious source of home-grown protein as well as employment opportunities in rural communities. With Europe reportedly continuing to be the top destination for Scottish salmon, does the cabinet secretary agree that the best way to enhance what our salmon industry has to offer Scotland and the world is to reverse Brexit and remove the bureaucracy and hardships that the Tories have forced on the sector?

I congratulate Keith Brown on bringing the motion to debate this evening. I also echo the calls of my colleague, Stuart McMillan, that this should be the subject of a Government debate. We should be highlighting the issue to the Scottish people.

I draw members’ attention to the silver mace that lies in front of us. Without its presence in the chamber, the Parliament cannot lawfully sit, debate or pass any legislation. Carved into the silver are the words “There shall be a Scottish Parliament”. At the reopening of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, Scotland’s first First Minister called the mace:

“a symbol of the great democratic traditions from which we draw our inspiration and our strength”.

On the founding words of our Parliament, he said:

“Through long years ... those words were first a hope, then a belief, then a promise. Now they are a reality.”

That reality, which we call devolution, has delivered us free tuition, record high health funding, a new social security system delivering 13 benefits including the Scottish child payment, free prescriptions, free bus travel for the over-60s and under-22s, free school meals for all children in primary 1 to primary 5, public ownership of ScotRail, free eye tests, free NHS dental care for under-26s, free period products for all who need them, better gender balance on public boards and world-leading climate targets. Those are just a handful of the achievements of this Parliament.

That brings me to the very purpose of the debate today. Why, after more than two decades of devolution, are we having to debate protecting it? Four minutes is nowhere near enough time for me to catalogue the litany of threats that the UK Government has made to Scottish democracy, but it is important that we remind ourselves precisely why Scotland must be vigilant to the quickening creep of authoritarianism, the on-going dilution of Scotland’s powers and growing disrespect from the UK Government with regard to Scottish democracy.

We do not need to look far to find cause for great concern. Only a few weeks ago in the English council elections, local election observers claimed that more than 1 per cent of voters, half of whom appeared to be from minority ethnic backgrounds, were turned away from polling stations.

I agree with my colleague that it is extremely concerning and I would have hoped that colleagues across all parties would have taken it a lot more seriously by showing up in the chamber today.

Not content with restricting voting rights, the UK Government has also set its sights on other tenets of our democracy, including the right to protest. Protests that are deemed by the UK Government to be too noisy can now be shut down as a result of Tory legislation.

What does all this point to? An overbearing governing party at Westminster seeking to circumvent the foundations of democracy. Deep down, the Tories know that they are losing their grip on power and the only way that they can cling on to even the remotest suspicion of electoral success is to remove the rights of voters and restrict the voices of those who oppose them.

Although those might be shocking revelations south of the border, in Scotland we have sadly come to know all too well the dictatorial tactics of those who simply cannot accept that the Scottish people have roundly rejected their vision of Scotland at every single election for the past seven decades.

In their desperation, the Tories have turned to interfering with our democracy, through culture wars and wedge issues. They are criminalising asylum seekers who are fleeing war through the Illegal Migration Bill; they have blocked legislation that received a supermajority of support in this Parliament and that aimed to make the lives of trans people just a little bit easier; and they have blocked our efforts to tackle climate change with the deposit return scheme.

It is clear that we must not only retain the devolved powers that we already have but accelerate the pace at which we diverge and, ultimately, break away from this Westminster Government—a Government that is as morally corrupt as it is democratically bankrupt. What we need is independence.