Chamber and committees

What was the legality that prevented the Government from publishing the outcome of a case?

You cannot even report on the number of cases that you have had, or on how many were upheld or rejected, just so that we can try to understand whether there is an issue here or not.

So you do not think that it is appropriate to share information about whether a complaint was upheld.

I picked that just as an example, minister. Was that money in the employability budget at the start of the year?

But where was that £53 million at the start of the year? Was there some biscuit tin with £191 million in it that has now been raided? I am struggling to understand this, because it seems to be a saving from an amount that had not been allocated in the first place.

What the industry is not crying out for is to be brought back into the detested CFP that the SNP wants to drag it into.

The UK Government has secured a deal that means that, for the first time in decades, we now control our own waters. By cutting out the bureaucratic behemoth of Brussels, we can end the years of managed decline in the industry and ensure that it is enabled to not only grow but flourish. That is what we should surely all want.

The total tonnage of fish that is landed in this country is increasing; leading the way is our Scottish fishing industry, which accounts for more than 70 per cent of landings. Unfortunately, the anti-growth, anti-business and anti-fishing SNP-Green coalition is failing our industry. That comes not just from me but from industry representatives across Scotland.

Time and again, we hear of examples of the SNP-Green devolved Government choosing to ignore the industry. These days, we all know how important it is for us to follow the science but, according to the Shetland Fishermen’s Association, that goes out the window with this Government when it comes to the science surrounding fisheries management. We also have the underresourced Marine Scotland, which, as it stands, is unable to properly deliver for the industry and lacks an innovative approach to the challenges that the sector faces.

Ultimately, it is the SNP’s decision to clamber into bed with its anti-growth partners, the Greens, in a desperate attempt to cling on to power that is holding back the sector. It is a coalition that the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation has said is fuelling an “increasingly hostile environment” for the industry. Let us not forget that it is the coalition partners in the nationalist Administration that would disgracefully drag Scotland’s fishing industry back into the hated CFP, throwing away new opportunities only to satisfy their blind pursuit of division.

People in the sector can rest assured that, while the Scottish Government ignores the fishing industry, the UK Government is standing up for them. In the UK Government’s 2018 sustainable fisheries white paper, it indicated that it intended to be a champion of sustainable fishing the length and breadth of our United Kingdom. Unlike the Scottish Government, that is what the UK Government is doing.

By angling for opportunity, this country has regained additional quota from the European Union that will be worth around £146 million over the next five years, which is to be shared among the four nations of the UK. We can certainly see that, all around us, there are plenty more fish in the sea.

The UK Government has also launched the UK seafood fund, which is worth £100 million. That fund is there to level up coastal communities across the UK. It will support the industry to process more of the fish landed in the UK, to create new job opportunities throughout the supply chain, to upskill the workforce, to train new entrants and to invest in technologies to put the industry at the cutting edge of sustainable fishing.

Did the SNP welcome that support for Scottish coastal communities? Of course not. How dare the UK Government do something to support Scotland’s fishing industry! It is abundantly clear that the SNP would much rather play petty constitutional politics than deliver for Scotland’s fishermen.

I will give the minister some ideas on how the Scottish Government could help the fishing industry. The transport links to Peterhead are a disgrace. There is no rail, so producers have to rely on a single-track road that goes past the notorious Toll of Birness.

We have been looking at rail, but there is no rail just now, so the quickest thing to do would be to improve the road to Peterhead. Surely the member would support that.

Fish processors are reluctant to invest in improved buildings in Aberdeen because they face crippling bills for business rates. If the Government cared about the fishing industry, it would sort that out. Let us look at the lack of investment in new automation equipment. If the Government cared about the fishing industry, it would sort that out. The Government has the powers; it just needs to use them.

The UK Government is not only acting in the interests of, but listening to, our fishing industry. Earlier this month, Scotland Office minister John Lamont visited fisheries in Shetland, and he will soon chair the next meeting of the Scottish seafood industry action group. Meanwhile, I am left wondering whether Lorna Slater has yet managed to figure out where Scotland’s fish farms are located.

The UK Government is meeting industry stakeholders, listening to what they need and what challenges they face, and working with them to ensure that they succeed in delivering smooth seas for the future.

I apologise to members and, in particular, Beatrice Wishart for not being in the chamber for all the opening speeches.

As someone who represents the north-east of Scotland, I know how crucial Scotland’s fishing industry is to the economies of our coastal communities. Everyone in the industry works incredibly hard to put high-quality food on our tables, and I thank them all for that.

Many people who work in Scotland’s fishing industry voted to leave the European Union in 2016 because they saw a sea of opportunity on the horizon, with the United Kingdom, as an independent coastal state, building our fishing industry outside of the detested common fisheries policy, which every SNP member seems to want to bring us back into.

Will the member take an intervention?

Will the member take an intervention?