Chamber and committees

Independent investigation of the police is crucial to ensure public confidence and to meet our human rights obligations. Once the Police Service of Scotland is established, the Police Investigation and Review Commissioner (PIRC) will be able to investigate offences involving police officers under the direction of the appropriate prosecutor. The PIRC will also be able to investigate serious incidents involving the police and misconduct by senior officers.

The information requested is being collated. I will write to the member as soon as the information is available and a copy will be placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 53984).

The planned members of the Crofting Commission Convener selection panel are David Barnes (Head of Scottish Government Agriculture and Rural Division), Yvonne Strachan (Head of Scottish Government Equality, Third Sector and Communities Division) and Drew Sloan (Scottish Government Chief Agricultural Officer). David Barnes, as the head of the Division sponsoring the Crofting Commission, has responsibility for all policy issues relating to crofting, and Drew Sloan has extensive expertise in agricultural production which is of prime concern to crofters.

All the candidates will have been either elected by crofters to represent their interests, or tested for knowledge of crofting issues during the process leading to their appointment by the Scottish Government. However, it is important to note that the role of the convener requires a wider set of skills than simply knowledge of crofting, and these wider skills will be tested during the appointment process for the convener.

The Scottish Government has chosen to appoint the convener in a fair, open and transparent process run in accordance with the Public Appointments Commissioner for Scotland’s Code of Practice:

http://www.publicappointments.org/publications/publication/100/revised-code-of-practice-for-ministerial-appointments-to-public-bodies-in-scotland. Yvonne Strachan has wide experience of high-level public appointments and will aid the selection process greatly.

Since May 2007 the First Minister has made three official visits to the United States in October 2007, April 2008 and February 2009.

Shetland Islands Council has put forward numerous options for future funding of their Housing Revenue Account. All of these options involve significant levels of funding from Scottish Government. Scottish ministers are yet to come to a conclusion which, if any of these options, it should provide funding for. I will be contacting the leader of the council to discuss the issue of future HRA funding once he or she has been appointed. In the meantime, Scottish Government is making monthly Housing Support Grant instalments to Shetland Islands Council totalling £760,950 in 2012-13 and has paid approximately £28 million in grant since 1999.

We note the Commission’s assumption that the fishing fleet is increasing by 3% per annum. However, Scottish fleet capacity, as measured by Gross Tonnage (GT) and Kilowatts (kW), has in fact decreased by 27,906 GT (20%) and 69,879 kW (18%) from 2001 to 2010.

I last met with Commissioner Damanaki on 25 April 2012. At this meeting and on previous occasions I underlined the concern of a number of EU Member States for there to be changes made urgently to the EU’s Cod Recovery Plan (CRP). In particular I have sought from the Commissioner an assurance that there will be no further reductions in minimum levels of fishing effort available to EU fleets, a view strongly supported by a number of Member States. I will continue to press these important arguments with the Commissioner.

In its implementation of the CRP in Scotland, through the innovative Conservation Credits scheme the Government has continued to make full use of flexibilities available under the plan to allocate additional time at sea to Scottish vessels in return for their adoption of conservation-minded fishing practices such as the use of more selective fishing gear.

As a consequence of this approach the Scottish North Sea whitefish fleet was able in 2011 to spend over 50 per cent more time at sea than would have been possible under the minimum allocation provided by the EU. In 2012 the Government and the fishing industry have also agreed a ground-breaking deal for the prawn fleet, which aims to substantially reduce unwanted catches of cod. In return the Government is able to reverse all the cuts in time at sea that this fleet has been subject to since 2009.

In the absence of specific EU fisheries regulations prohibiting fishing activities in certain areas then vessels from all EU member states can fish in any community waters that they have historical access rights under the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), irrespective of any designated status. Generally that means they can fish up to the 12 mile limit, but in a limited number of cases vessels from some member states can fish up to the 6 mile limit for certain species. Details of historical access rights are listed in Annex 1 of EC 2371/2002:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2002:358:0059:0080:EN:PDF.

If a EU member state wishes to prohibit fishing activity in an area beyond territorial limits they would have to apply for non discriminatory measures via the European Commission to ensure that the measures applied to all EU vessels.

There is a lengthy process that must be followed for Natura 2000 locations, and it is outlined at:

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/natura2000/marine/docs/fish_measures.pdf.

There are no restrictions on fishing by other EU member state vessels in any proposed marine protected area sites unless there are existing EU fisheries regulations prohibiting that fishing activity.

EU legislation provides for closures of areas of sea for the protection of juvenile cod, haddock, whiting and saithe. If an area is closed this applies equally to all vessels regardless of their nationality.

Marine Scotland also operates cod Real Time Closures as a non-statutory administrative scheme agreed with the fishing industry under the Scottish Conservation Credits Scheme. This scheme applies to all UK vessels. Other countries’ vessels are not obliged to abide with the scheme rules but on the whole show very high levels of co-operation in avoiding these areas. Only Scottish vessels receive the benefit in terms of extra time at sea gained from abiding by these closures.