Seòmar agus comataidhean

We received the Scottish Science Advisory Council report, and we are considering its recommendations and how we respond to it. We had quite a detailed discussion on it at the meeting of the Scottish Aquaculture Council last week, which was very helpful for our consideration.

You are talking about looking ahead and climate change. It is important that the frameworks that we have in place are adaptive and that we are able to look ahead and ensure that we have mechanisms that are flexible to the challenges that we might meet in the future. The farmed fish health strategic framework is important in that regard. A key strand of that work is looking at the challenges presented by climate change, and a few strands of work feed into that. We know that there will be more challenges in the future, so it is important that we have the capacity and capability to deal with them.

I would be happy to provide the committee with more information on the implementation strategy, if it would find that helpful. We have timelines and reporting dates set out in that strategy that might be helpful for the committee to receive.

Yes.

We are looking at the challenges that you are talking about. I mentioned the need for an adaptable framework that we can alter as we get more information, research and data and respond to the innovations. We need a framework that can adapt and manage, and that is why the themes of work are being taken forward through the farmed fish health framework include climate change and other such areas. We have to look to the future. That work and what we do on climate change are already a key priority, and we continue to look at it. We are dealing with a really innovative industry and, obviously, I am keen to enable it as much as possible.

We have not undertaken a risk assessment at the moment, but, as I have said, a huge number of pieces of work are under way, as should be clear from what has been set out against the recommendations as well as from previous inquiries. In that work, we are addressing some of the challenges that the industry currently faces and challenges that it will face in the future.

Your question is in relation to the penalty fees that we receive for escapes. We have already made commitments as to what we would look to do with any increase in penalties, and work on that is on-going. We have also outlined some of the work that we need to do in the implementation plan for the wild salmon strategy that we published earlier this year. We said initially that we would be looking to ring fence any moneys received from that to support research into wild salmon and any work that needs to be taken forward on that. However, that work still needs to be undertaken, so we have not made any firm decisions yet.

Rhoda Grant asked me about the benefits that communities get, and I talked about the sea bed lease fees that Crown Estate Scotland receives and how those are distributed to local authorities for community benefit.

If the committee intends to do more work on that and wants to tease out some of those issues in more detail and has thoughts on particular areas, I am more than happy to consider that. As I said, we are undertaking that work. We need to do the work on penalties, but we need to do that in the context of what we said that we would do, and that will feature in any of the discussions that we have in the future.

That is a really important point, and it is something that we are keen to take forward through our vision for aquaculture, too. We recognise the important role that communities play and want to make sure that their voices are heard, and we are looking to enhance that through the vision for aquaculture. That work is under way.

We talked earlier in the session about the consenting task group and its work, which has a strong focus on communities and how we can engage with all the relevant parties at an early stage in the process. Of course, we will want to monitor how that and the applications pilot work over the summer, and we will take any learning that we get as a result. At the moment, communities have the ability to put forward their views through the planning process, but those other bits of work will really help to enhance a community’s role and involvement as early as possible in the process.

As for the community benefits, we have the sea bed lease fees from Crown Estate Scotland. Those fees, which will be increasing, go to local authorities for community benefit purposes.

The member is absolutely right about the well-paid jobs and, in particular, the importance of aquaculture to some of our most remote communities and island communities. Work is on-going on this matter, and we are working with the industry to address some of those challenges.

You are, without a doubt, right about the pressures of housing. A couple of years ago, I visited Colonsay specifically to meet the community there and talk about a housing project that was being done in conjunction with Mowi but that was also using some of the funds that we had made available. It is not the jobs in an area that are the problem, but the housing that is holding people back from moving into communities.

Those pieces of work are really important, and the approach is definitely something that we want to continue to develop. Apart from the project in Colonsay that I visited, there is, I believe, a project in Rum that is doing the same thing. All of that will factor into the work that is being taken forward through the remote rural and islands housing action plan. That work is being led and developed by the Minister for Housing, but I will, of course, engage closely with him on it as it develops.