Chamber and committees

I was just going to suggest the same.

Similar concerns were expressed 300 years ago and they are written on the side of the Parliament:

“But naebody's nails can reach the length o’ Lunnon.”

Vhairi Tollan, could you comment briefly on something that the Scottish Crofting Federation said in its submission to the UK Government consultation on its internal market white paper? The submission states that

“we accept the need for an organised internal market but this must be designed and agreed by all four UK administrations, not imposed by one”.

You have touched on those issues. Do you feel that legislatures or organisation such as yours have been involved in the design of the proposals for the internal market?

To ask the Scottish Government what consultation is being undertaken with communities regarding next year’s summer timetable for ferry routes within the CalMac network. (S6O-00367)

I thank the minister for his very helpful reply. He will be aware of concern in my constituency over proposed changes that would result in an overall reduction in the number of sailings from Lochmaddy and Tarbert. Will he comment on that and on why the consultation period for the issue was, apparently, so short?

That is very helpful. One of my questions was about species for which the only practical method of getting them to market might be getting them there live. Prawns are the obvious example. I think that people can readily understand the point in your supermarket example. However, anxiety might be expressed in communities whose whole economic model is based on getting prawns live to market, for example. Would what you are saying about some species, such as crabs, have an impact on such trade?

Thank you very much. That is helpful.

I appreciate the importance of what the commission does and I am fully signed up to the animal welfare principles on which it is based and, indeed, to much of what you report to us. However, I represent an island constituency in which fishing and creeling are important. People are curious to know where your recommendations about crabs and cuttlefish are leading. I understand why, independently, you have to come to the views to which you come about sentience, but what do you expect people to do? Are you looking for people to change how they cope with bycatches and creels? What would you like us to do to improve the lot of a crab?

If Brexit is, as the picture that the member paints suggests, an unqualified success, can he explain why many fish-processing businesses in my constituency cannot find a workforce?

Will the member give way?

The fisheries negotiations are, if not exactly a festive occasion, at least a predictable feature of the advent season. This year the UK has ensured for itself less influence over the negotiations than ever before.

The last few years could be described as having been challenging, at best, for Scotland’s fishing industry and for our coastal communities as a whole. The combination of Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic have resulted in huge losses of income and even the closure of some entire fishing enterprises. Therefore, it is important that Scotland’s voice is heard—in whatever indirect way that Scotland can ensure that that happens—in the on-going coastal state negotiations.

As the talks surrounding 2021’s catch agreements were concluded only in the summer, it is a cautiously hopeful sign that the negotiations for 2022 seem to be proceeding in a more timeous manner, with agreements for pelagic stocks having been signed at the end of October. However, despite the swifter progression of the next coastal state negotiations, Scotland’s fishermen still face myriad difficulties.

Although fishermen were promised that Brexit would bring welcome benefits to their businesses, the last-minute deal instead sacrificed the needs of the Scottish fishing industry all too quickly. Who can forget the gridlock at the Anglo-French border or the Northern Irish ports in January this year, with tonnes of good-quality Scottish produce going to waste due to the mountains of additional paperwork and costs that were brought about by Brexit? Labour shortages—which, I noticed, one Conservative member seemed to completely and casually dismiss as irrelevant and which were already a concern for both the catching and processing sectors, not least in my constituency—have been further exacerbated this year against the backdrop of a lack of seasonal workers across multiple industries.

As we have heard from the Government today, protecting our marine environment is one of the most important ways that Scotland can be a world leader in carbon capture and storage. Scotland’s seas are estimated to hold more carbon than the total that is stored in our land resources, such as our peatlands, forests and soils. However, I want to say that fishing deserves a future as part of all this—a future in which designations are managed at a genuinely local level and in which the concerns of some of our most fragile communities are listened to.

It is essential that those who work in the fishing industry can access the right Government information, support and initiatives. It seems that support schemes are in high demand, given that the marine fund Scotland was suddenly closed at the beginning of October due to the high level of applications for the funding. I am pleased that Marine Scotland, in its own words, has

“taken stock of the MFS commitments”

and has decided to reopen the fund as of Monday this week.

Scotland’s fishing industry is a vital component of the economic, social and cultural life of communities around Scotland’s coastline. In my constituency, it represents overwhelmingly small businesses and small concerns. I hope that the coastal state negotiations provide a platform for reminding ourselves, as much as any other country, of that fact and of the importance of that fact in the months and years that lie ahead.