Skip to main content
Loading…

Chamber and committees

Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

Filter your results Hide all filters

Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 4 May 2021
  6. Current session: 13 May 2021 to 21 October 2025
Select which types of business to include


Select level of detail in results

Displaying 3372 contributions

|

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 4 June 2025

Gillian Martin

It depends on which waters we are talking about.

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 4 June 2025

Gillian Martin

We have responsibilities for inshore waters.

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 4 June 2025

Gillian Martin

Yes, but, again, the issue is to do with the interoperability of the two regimes. At the moment, we are in a bit of a sweet spot with regard to alignment, because of the UK Government’s ambitions in that area. In addition, both Parliaments have net zero targets—ours is 2045 and the UK’s is 2050—so there has to be interoperability when it comes to how we achieve those.

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 4 June 2025

Gillian Martin

Are you suggesting that Scotland should have responsibility for offshore as well as inshore waters?

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 4 June 2025

Gillian Martin

Given your constitutional allegiances, I am not sure that you want to go down that path. We are getting further into the area of asking whether the Scottish Government, which wants to have responsibility for Scotland as a whole, should have powers in relation to the entire marine environment, and you know what my answer would be.

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 4 June 2025

Gillian Martin

I am glad that we got there in the end.

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 4 June 2025

Gillian Martin

We can look into whether more clarity is needed.

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 4 June 2025

Gillian Martin

I remember our discussions about that when we were on the committee together in the previous session. Private organisations can volunteer to give us their data. You spoke about the marine environment. We have been involving more fishers in collecting data that is associated with marine protected areas and fisheries management measures, and the Scottish Government is working on vessels with fishers. We also have connections with offshore wind developers and others who work in the marine environment.

You are absolutely right that no holistic system really exists, but I will probably be able to get back to the committee about how we look to manage that data.

The costs that are associated with the bill do not reflect the spend across the whole of Government on critical endeavours in the rural affairs space. We will take away your point that there is lots of data out there but it is not co-ordinated. To go back to what Lisa McCann said about indicators, it is critical that we have robust data in order to develop the indicators for targets.

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 4 June 2025

Gillian Martin

The bill says

“one or more of the purposes”.

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 4 June 2025

Gillian Martin

That is pitting net zero against biodiversity—