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Seòmar agus comataidhean

Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 4 May 2021
  6. Current session: 13 May 2021 to 20 October 2025
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Displaying 1964 contributions

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Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Salmon Farming in Scotland

Meeting date: 12 June 2024

Rachael Hamilton

I am afraid that I do not really have much of a grasp of how it works from your answers, and I know that you are giving what information you can.

Can I move on briefly to the no counts? Again, looking at the data, and as you have described, there are various reasons for individuals giving no counts—as in not giving the data. Do you track the justifications for describing a no count? How do you go to somebody and ask whether it is true that those individuals have not been able to give the data because of weather conditions or withdrawal periods?

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Salmon Farming in Scotland

Meeting date: 12 June 2024

Rachael Hamilton

Okay. Maybe we will cover that later. I just want to know the average time, but I do not want to go into somebody else’s questions, convener. Can I ask about that?

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Salmon Farming in Scotland

Meeting date: 12 June 2024

Rachael Hamilton

Have you worked out the average time for one of these commercial enterprises to get back to normality or to the threshold level? Is that possible? Are you monitoring that? If I was doing your job, I would be quite worried if, for example, it took somebody six or 12 months to get to that stage.

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Salmon Farming in Scotland

Meeting date: 12 June 2024

Rachael Hamilton

Are you worried about the repeated no counts?

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Salmon Farming in Scotland

Meeting date: 12 June 2024

Rachael Hamilton

While you look for those figures, that leads me on nicely to the number of enforcement actions that have been taken. You said that, if satisfactory measures were not demonstrated and the situation was not satisfactory, that would lead you to issue an improvement notice and then escalate it to the procurator fiscal. What enforcement actions have been taken and have there been any prosecutions for failure to reduce sea lice levels?

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Salmon Farming in Scotland

Meeting date: 12 June 2024

Rachael Hamilton

Can you explain to the committee the practicalities of doing an inspection, asking individual salmon farms to put in satisfactory measures and then giving an improvement notice? That is all tied up with the next part of my question, which is about the no counts. Of course, a number of people are not reporting for various reasons.

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Salmon Farming in Scotland

Meeting date: 12 June 2024

Rachael Hamilton

Your approach sounds as though it is a little bit more carrot than stick. I would like the committee to understand the timeframe for going in, inspecting, saying that things need to improve and then being satisfied. How many times do you subsequently go back to an individual because the situation has not improved? You seem to be saying that there has been a breach at six farms but, looking at the raw data, there seems to be a more varied picture than that. There have been a number of breaches—more than you are describing—but they have not led to enforcement or referral to the procurator fiscal. Do you work out how long, on average, it takes for you to give somebody an opportunity to improve and to improve and to improve and to improve?

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Salmon Farming in Scotland

Meeting date: 12 June 2024

Rachael Hamilton

It is nice to see you giving evidence this morning, Mr Allan.

Last week, we heard evidence that the sea lice situation is still very serious. You have said that the sea lice situation has changed significantly. If you have the figures to hand, the committee would like to understand how many incidences there have been of sea lice levels exceeding the mandatory figure.

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Salmon Farming in Scotland

Meeting date: 12 June 2024

Rachael Hamilton

You did say, however, that the sea lice situation has changed significantly. What did you mean by that if the mandatory measures have not actually made a difference?

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Salmon Farming in Scotland

Meeting date: 5 June 2024

Rachael Hamilton

In your opinion, do those who operate the farm assurance scheme have any input into the data gathering, so that the farms that should be giving information are doing so and it is then followed up? When I looked on the site at some of the circumstances in which no counts were registered, the reasons given included “weather”, “withdrawal period prior to harvesting”, “vet advice” and “site recently stocked”. What input do the assurance scheme providers have in ensuring that salmon farms provide that information?