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In the engagement that I have had, I have certainly met a lot of passionate people in each of their sectors, who all greatly value and know the importance of the sustainability of the stocks that they fish and catch—

You are absolutely right that we have used biennial closures, and this will be the second closure that we have had. We had a consultation in the lead-up to the previous closure, so we will undertake another consultation. I cannot give a definitive timescale for that yet, but we are looking to do it soon. We will continue to keep the committee updated on that.

I want to be clear that we will absolutely do that engagement. There have been frustrations about the pace that the bill has moved at. We have been trying to get answers to those questions so that we can get the correct processes in place. As far as I am aware, those discussions are on-going. George Burgess may have more information.

I can give a quick assurance that that will be part of the consultation. We will be looking to announce that and take those licensing proposals forward in the coming weeks.

That is why what Francesco Sindico highlighted is so important. The challenges must be identified and a baseline picture must be built so that we have something to monitor against. I hope that you can understand that from what is set out in the work on that strategic objective, where you can see the five different projects that have been undertaken. None of them is quick or necessarily easy to do, but they ensure that we are continuing to progress that objective. The project on the existing data indicators framework is trying to see what existing indicators we can use to monitor the framework. All those projects are about ensuring that we are getting the baseline data that will help us to do this effectively.

As Erica Clarkson just outlined, on the basis of the feedback that we had, we worked on the guidance and refreshed it last year. Obviously, the onus is on the 71 relevant authorities that are in the schedule and that must undertake island communities impact assessments. Therefore, the focus has been on how they undertake that work and on ensuring that they meaningfully engage with people who will be impacted by the policies.

I am happy to outline that, but it is important to remember that all the commitments have either been fulfilled or are on-going. With some of the commitments, it will not simply be a case of ticking them off, because they will be on-going. Some of the strategic objectives and projects that are under way—for example, those under objective 11, which relates to arts, heritage and culture—will be things that we will continue to do. Some of the commitments in relation to that area and to others will be on-going instead of being completely fulfilled.

As for progress from last year, we have fulfilled an additional five commitments. Some key areas of progress can be found, for example, under strategic objective 12 and the commitments that we have set out on the young islanders network. I was happy to be able to launch that network last summer, in Orkney, and we have seen its development. It has been great to see the young islanders joining and featuring in our national islands plan delivery group. As part of that, they also feature on the islands programme investment panel. It has been really great to see the development of that network and how it has continued to grow and increase its engagement.

Another commitment that we have fulfilled is on the islands passport, which has been launched and which the Highlands and Islands Transport Partnership is continuing to monitor. There are also a few commitments in relation to national planning framework 4, which is now being implemented. The commitments that we have made in the national islands plan in recognition of our island communities have been recognised in that framework, too.

We should also not forget the islands programme itself. I was proud to announce the 13 projects that had been successful in the programme funding round that was launched earlier this year. I think that you can see from the commitments that we have set out and the implementation route map that goes alongside them that an awful lot of work is going on, but we have fulfilled some commitments, based on where we were last year.

I am happy to take any feedback on that. As you say, and as we have also highlighted today, we have already reviewed the guidance on the basis of feedback about how we undertake the assessments. We are constantly trying to make improvements wherever we can.

I am confident that we will continue to make progress. As I said, the progress that we have made during the past year can be seen, and the work is continuing.

We can see that from some of the commitments in the plan. A lot of the outcomes will be on-going, because we want to see continued improvement. I do not think that you would like it if I came to the committee and outlined that we have ticked a box, so we can move on and focus on something else. The review of the national islands plan—which I spoke about—is also important, because we have to ensure that the objectives in the plan still meet the needs of our island communities and that they reflect the priorities that island communities want us to focus on.

If you look across the board at the full suite of objectives, you will see that we are continuing to work on them. For example, a number of threads of work are on-going on strategic objective 1, which is on population. We are working on the talent attraction and migration service, and we are continuing to work on the addressing depopulation action plan, which is a key commitment. We are continuing to work, and we are trying—where we can, and wherever possible—to improve outcomes for our island communities.