Seòmar agus comataidhean

In relation to Producer Organisations (POs), Scottish Government officials had sought to co-operate with the UK Government in a review of POs. The previous UK government administration had committed to a review of POs (and the retained EU regulations that enabled them) however this did not come about. Given, the pan UK nature of POs (which are governed by guidance developed by the four UK administrations), there are benefits to a joint review. Scottish Government officials will explore the potential for a joint-review with the new UK Government administration in the first instance.

In relation to Quota Management Groups, the Scottish Government is conducting a review of these organisations (which are a Scottish Government initiative and only have remit in Scotland). This review will be published in the coming months.

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-33850 on 31 January 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Scottish Government does not have the powers to prosecute Marine and Fisheries offences, these powers lie with the Crown Office Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) who prosecute on our behalf. This is a technical point.

The 1984 Act is one of many acts and orders which the Scottish Government uses to control marine and fisheries activities.

The 1984 Act mainly controls restrictions on fishing methods in vulnerable areas, much of which is now covered by orders made under the Marine Scotland Act 2010.

The legislation used depends on the offences committed and the penalties available.

Additionally, the Scottish Government has powers to issue Fixed Penalty Notices (FPN) in lieu of reporting cases to the COPFS. Most cases where a penalty was deemed appropriate were dealt with in this way. Details of FPNs are published, link Reporting statistics from marine and fisheries compliance - gov.scot

Table detailing cases prosecuted under the 1984 Act.

Our commitment to Scotland’s seafood sector was reflected in the publication of the Strategy for Seafood in October 2022. While there are no current plans to update this document, Scottish Government will continue to work with industry to realise our ambitions for the sector. This includes continuing to work with the sector on trade barriers arising from EU Exit, which has impaired the competitiveness of Scottish seafood.

The Scottish Government has since 2021 awarded £8.25m to Seafood Scotland as Scotland’s national trade and marketing organisation for the seafood industry. Seafood Scotland projects have included those:

• supporting domestic and export market development;
• promoting wide awareness of Scottish seafood as a sustainable food source and the opportunities it offers as a career destination; and
• co-hosting, in October 2024, the Responsible Seafood Summit in St Andrews which attracted 350 delegates from around the world to further develop a healthy, responsible global seafood community.

Seafood Scotland is currently leading on the development of a Scottish Ocean Cluster alongside other key stakeholders including Zero Waste Scotland, Ibioic, Opportunity North East and Aberdeenshire Council. This project is part of a concerted and integrated movement to increase the utilisation of processing and catching by-products, and to increase their value by converting them for example to food and biomedical products.

We acknowledge that there is an overall lack of data and evidence on women in fisheries for a number of reasons, and we agree that steps are needed to improve this. This is an important issue and many of these gaps will need to be filled in collaboration with the industry and the wider research communities.

The potential cumulative impacts of the ScotWind leasing round are currently being assessed through the sectoral marine planning process. The ScotWind sites, together with the sites leased by Crown Estate Scotland through the Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas Decarbonisation (INTOG) leasing round will form the spatial basis for the updated Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind Energy. The planning process includes undertaking a plan-level social and economic impact assessment which will provide an estimate of the potential impacts that offshore wind developments may have on other marine sectors and activities. This assessment will be made available for public consultation, alongside the draft updated Plan, later this year.

The Scottish Government is using its legislation and policies to maximise the impact procurement can have for public bodies, local suppliers and the Scottish economy.

Local authorities, supported by Scotland Excel, remain committed to using local and sustainable produce in school catering. All local authorities are under a statutory duty to consider the principles of sustainable development (fresh, local, sustainable) when providing food or drink or catering services in schools. This includes seafood procured to meet the oily fish standard set out in the school food and drink Regulations.

To promote local and sustainable produce public bodies have the flexibility to:

• Design menus that include Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) Food;
• Specify food produced according to recognised assurance schemes, e.g. Quality Meat Scotland, MSC, Red Tractor, RSPCA, or equivalent bespoke company systems.

While public bodies are responsible for their own procurement decisions, the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, which came into force on 18 April 2016, proposes a range of opportunities to increase the quality and provenance of food and drink procured. The key opportunity is in relation to the form and content for public bodies’ procurement strategies in which they must set out their policy on the procurement of food.? Under the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, a public body with an annual procurement spend of at least £5 million must report each year on how, its procurements improve the economic, social and environmental well-being of an area and facilitate access to procurement for SMEs, the third sector and supported businesses. Statutory Guidance published under the Act sets out this requirement in more detail.

The Scottish Government is also providing Marine Fund Scotland funding towards Seafood Scotland’s “Market Development Project”, which involves work to ensure Scottish seafood’s profile grows in UK markets. This includes specific activity with various stakeholders throughout the supply chain to look at ways of increasing consumption of Scottish seafood in public procurement settings.

The Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity and I have not met directly with the Scottish Anglers National Association (SANA).

However, representatives of SANA were part of the stakeholder group that advised on the development of the Wild Salmon Strategy published in 2022. Since then, three Scottish angling governing bodies – SANA, the Scottish Federation for Coarse Angling and Scottish Federation of Sea Anglers - have been brought together under the umbrella of Angling Scotland. Angling Scotland now represents the interests of SANA in Marine Directorate stakeholders groups.

The Scottish Government has engaged with energy industry stakeholders on spatial pressures in the marine environment through our current work to update the Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind Energy and the development of the National Marine Plan 2. Ongoing engagement on spatial pressures is also facilitated through the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council (SOWEC) - Barriers to Deployment Group.