Chamber and committees

European Funding is allocated to Scotland on a programme basis. These programmes have an eight year timescale and as such there is no annual allocation and no analysis is available for yearly allocation and draw down.

During the last 10 years there were two programmes operating the 2000-06 programme and the 2007-13 programme. For the 2000-2006 programme the overall amount available to Scotland for both the European Social Fund and the European Regional Development Fund was £997m of which Scotland expects to draw down £992m. For the 2007-13 programme the overall amount available to Scotland for both the European Social Fund and the European Development Fund is £740m of which Scotland has to date drawn down £368m. These funds are available to be drawn down up until the 31 December 2015. The remaining balance of the funds has been committed and is expected to be drawn down during the remainder of the programming period. The 2014-20 programmes are currently being developed and will be the subject of negotiation with the European Commission. At this stage in the process we have no indication of the amount which ultimately will be available to Scotland.

The estimated farm gate value for Scottish aquaculture since 2000 is shown in the following table. Scottish Government does not collect data on sale of freshwater fisheries, beyond that contained in the following table:

Scottish aquaculture, farmgate production value, £m (2011 prices)

	Atlantic Salmon	Rainbow Trout	Mussels	Other Finfish	Other Shellfish	Total Aquaculture
2000	405	12	3	.3	1.2	421
2001	346	10	4	.6	1.2	362
2002	341	14	4	1.2	1.1	361
2003	390	14	5	1.6	1.1	411
2004	340	12	5	1.3	1.0	359
2005	350	13	5	1.8	.9	370
2006	431	14	4	3.1	1.1	453
2007	356	14	5	3.7	.9	380
2008	359	16	6	9.3	1.8	392
2009	435	16	7	1.8	1.4	461
2010	554	12	7	1.1	1.2	576
2011	588	10	12	.9	1.5	612

Source: based on Scottish Government production data and price estimates provided by industry

HMRC figures on exports of fresh Scottish salmon from the UK are estimated at:

Exports of fresh Scottish salmon from the UK, £m, 2011 prices, source HMRC

2008	115
2009	170
2010	245
2011	331

<>The Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment for the Aquaculture and Fisheries (Scotland) Bill is published on the Scottish Government website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2012/11/6007.

<>Yes. The Scottish Government, through representation by Marine Scotland, was in attendance at the International Symposium on Salmon at Sea. The report of the summit was published in November 2012 as part of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) Journal of Marine Science series and is available online at: http://icesjms.oxfordjournals.org/content/69/9.toc.

The SALSEA-Merge Project represents the European contribution to the wider international SALSEA project and was funded by the North Atlantic Conservation Organisation (NASCO). The outputs from the project will support both our work in the rivers within Scotland and inform future participation in NASCO.

Returns of salmon to Scottish waters are estimated annually by the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) as part of its assessment of salmon stocks in the North Atlantic. Returns are estimated from reported catch, adjusted to take account of non-reported catch and exploitation rate.

ICES figures are available from 1971 and the estimated annual returns from 1971 to 2011 are provided in a graph and table lodged with SPICe (bib. No 544820). The graph illustrates annual fluctuations and an overall downward trend until 1999, and a more stable trend since then of around 546,000.

The Scottish Government has collected salmon and sea trout catch statistics since 1952. Statistics for the 2011 salmon fishing season together with an assessment of the status of stocks as inferred from these data are available on the Scottish Government website at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/0040/00402122.pdf.

While Chilean production of farmed salmon would appear to have returned to levels seen prior to its near collapse 2-3 years ago, and production costs are lower than in Scotland and Norway, at this time the Scottish Government has no information on whether salmon from Chile is being dumped on fish markets and any impact of this on the economy.

Marine Scotland does not carry out routine acoustic tagging of salmon in Scottish waters. As part of our research programmes in the Cromarty Firth acoustic tags were implanted into: adult salmon during the summer in 2004 and 2005; salmon smolts during the spring of 2010 and 2011. Marine Scotland also undertake a range of other tagging activities.

In Scotland we do not currently have established conservation limits, nor corresponding estimates of spawning escapement, to manage salmon stocks. We currently do, and will continue to work with appropriate stakeholders to address concerns across a broad range of topics concerning the status of salmon stocks and to improve our understanding of those factors which are influencing the health of our marine environment and freshwater fisheries.

The Scottish Government has not held discussions with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations regarding salmon production.

The Scottish Government is aware that the FAO has stated the importance of aquaculture in feeding a growing world population which now accounts for nearly 50% of the world’s supply of fish for human consumption.