Chamber and committees

I have outlined some of the assessments and the different interactions that need to be considered. There are a variety of factors as to why the work has taken longer than was anticipated. I appreciate your point about the pressures that exist in the marine space. The national marine plan 2 is being developed—that work is being led by the Acting Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy—and updates on it were provided last month. A lot of the issues that we are discussing will be considered in relation to the timescales that are being looked at there.

As I said, we are proceeding with the work and we are trying to do it as well and as thoroughly as we can. I will provide further updates to the committee on how that work is progressing.

You have raised a really important point and hugely important issues. From the outset, I want to make it clear that we condemn any trafficking of people and any exploitation of those who work in this country. We strengthened the law in relation to that in 2015 with an act that gave the police more powers and generally tried to strengthen the law in relation to such offences. However, undoubtedly, issues exist that we need to address.

You raised the matter in relation to fisheries first of all, and there are few issues to touch on in that regard. In relation to agriculture, in particular, you will be aware of the points that Richard Leonard raised during our discussions on the Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Bill and some of the issues that surfaced when the bill was going through Parliament. We support the Worker Support Centre, which highlighted some concerns with us, and I met it during the discussions on the bill.

The issue straddles a few policy areas. I will be meeting Richard Leonard—next week, I think—together with the Minister for Housing, so that we can try to address those problems. When it comes to housing policy, as I think that I said during the debate on the agriculture bill, we should expect the same accommodation standards for people regardless of where they are from or the jobs that they do. That is the ultimate aim of the policies that we are developing. However, that policy development and the discussions on that bill have highlighted the fact that there are gaps that we need to work together to address. Therefore, I hope that next week’s meetings will be a step towards that, and I know that the Minister for Housing is considering the matter, too.

In relation to the fishing industry, part of the problem is the use of transit visas. Ultimately, the various laws that would apply to workers here do not apply to those working under a transit visa. We raised concerns about this matter, including the use of those visas, with the UK Government.

We want the fishing industry to be an attractive career of choice. The industry itself has worked on a number of initiatives to try to get more people to work across the industry, but we absolutely have to do what we can to tackle those issues where we know that they exist. Obviously, any prosecutions will be for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and Police Scotland to deal with. However, we condemn any of that behaviour, and we want to ensure that people are working in suitable conditions when they come to live and work in this country.

Iain Wallace will be able to provide more detailed information in relation to that question.

We proactively publish a lot of the information in relation to the work that we undertake so that we are entirely transparent about the level of inspections. In the past, we have received quite a lot of correspondence on that and there has been a feeling that some vessels are being treated differently from others, but the work that we have undertaken has shown that that is not the case. Overall, nearly 4,000 intelligence reports have been received and there have been about 2,000 inspections. Some of that equates to massive increases in the overall inspection rate—a 50 per cent increase in the number of intelligence reports that have been received. All of that has been because of the prioritisation that that has been given.

The checks are done on a risk basis in some areas, and Iain will be able to provide more detail on that.

I will provide a further update on that. Once I have confirmed what that is going to look like, I will write to the committee and provide that information.

Yes, absolutely. I brought the regulations for the commission to the committee earlier this year. We announced that we had appointed Dennis Overton as its chair a few weeks ago, in mid-August. That is an important first step in establishing the commission, and we will look to recruit further members.

We want to make sure that the commission is up and running at the same time as we introduce the plan. We think that that timeline makes sense, but I am happy to keep the committee updated as that work progresses.

The point about evidence-based decision making is absolutely right. Such evidence is factoring into the work that we are taking forward on fisheries management plans. I would not disagree with that point, because that is hugely important. We want to base FMPs on the best available evidence, and the stocks that we have focused on initially have been those on which a wider set of information is available.

I absolutely agree. We certainly do not want to wait until the forthcoming TCA before we put across our position on what we expect the agreement to look like. I had a brief initial meeting with the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Steve Reed, in the summer, just after his appointment. The Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity and I, together with those from the other devolved Administrations, will be meeting the UK Government on Monday. I hope that that will provide a bit of a reset for relations with the UK Government, which is what we need. We will be able to approach such issues and make known to the UK Government our interests and the areas that we see as important. Fisheries are disproportionately important to Scotland and our wider economy, so we want to ensure that our interests are represented as much as possible.

We have some other expectations for a future TCA. We have set out our position on what a veterinary and sanitary and phytosanitary agreement could look like, because the arrangements could certainly be improved. It sounds as though the UK Government wants to head in that direction, too, so that we can remove some of the barriers to trade with the EU.

We are clear in all our discussions with the UK Government that nothing should be done at the expense of industries that are important to Scotland. It is hugely important that we have a seat at the table and can feed in to discussions. I will certainly be seeking that through my engagement with the UK Government.

Do you mean in relation to the whole TCA more broadly?

I do not know what the timescales are just now. Annabel Turpie has moved to a temporary position because of the various moves that are taking place. Perhaps Iain Wallace has more to say on that.

That is certainly not the case. The piece of work on offshore MPAs on which we are currently consulting has been in development for a long time, and we are putting forward the full range of management measures as part of that. We have engaged extensively with industry over the past five years, or even longer, in order to bring those proposals forward. I know that some stakeholders have welcomed the fact that this piece of work has finally been progressed and that we are consulting on it. The work is being led by another portfolio, but it is certainly not introducing HPMAs—I think that we have made our position on that very clear.