The Scottish Government

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Responding to this Consultation Paper

We are inviting responses to this consultation paper by 24 February 2006.

You can respond to this consultation online, via the consultation web pages of the Scottish Executive website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations (where you can view other consultation papers online) or on the Fisheries Bill web pages at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Fisheries . You can telephone Freephone 0800 77 1234 to find out where your nearest public internet access point is.

The Scottish Executive is also inviting written responses and would be grateful if you could use the enclosed questionnaire and clearly indicate in your response which questions or parts of the consultation paper you are responding to as this will aid our analysis of the responses received. Please remember to fill in and return your Respondent Information Form (enclosed) along with your response. Please send your response to:

Angus Yarwood
Fisheries Bill Team
SEERAD
Room 409, Pentland House
47 Robb's Loan
Edinburgh
EH14 1TY

The Scottish Executive is also holding a number of consultation meetings throughout Scotland during the consultation period. These meetings will give you an opportunity to meet representatives of the Aquaculture and Freshwater Fisheries Division to put forward your views in person. The meetings are as follows:

If you are interested in attending any of these meetings please telephone 0131 244 6175
or e-mail fisheriesbill@scotland.gsi.gov.uk to help us estimate attendance numbers.

The Scottish Executive now has an email alert system for consultations (SEconsult: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations/seconsult.aspx ). This system allows stakeholder individuals and organisations to register and receive a weekly email containing details of all new consultations (including web links). SEconsult complements, but in no way replaces SE distribution lists, and is designed to allow stakeholders to keep up to date with all SE consultation activity, and therefore be alerted at the earliest opportunity to those of most interest. We would encourage you to register.

Handling your response

We need to know how you wish your response to be handled and, in particular, whether you are happy for your response to be made public. The Respondent Information Form (either enclosed or online) will ensure that we treat your response appropriately. If you ask for your response not to be published we will regard it as confidential, and we will treat it accordingly.

All respondents should be aware that the Scottish Executive are subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and would therefore have to consider any request made to it under the Act for information relating to responses made to this consultation exercise.

Next steps in the process

Where respondents have given permission for their response to be made public, these will be made available to the public in the Scottish Executive Library within 20 working days of the closing date and on the Scottish Executive consultation web pages by April 2006. We will check all responses where agreement to publish has been given for any potentially defamatory material before logging them in the library or placing them on the website. You can make arrangements to view responses by contacting the SE Library on 0131 244 4565. Responses can be copied and sent to you, but a charge may be made for this service.

What happens next?

Following the closing date, all responses will be analysed and considered along with any other available evidence to help us reach a decision on content of the draft Bill. We aim to issue a report on this consultation process by Summer 2006 in line with work on the draft Bill.

Comments or complaints

If you have any comments or complaints about how this consultation exercise has been conducted, please send them to Alistair Prior at the above address.

If you have any queries on any of the above please contact Alistair Prior at the above address or call him on 0131 244 6223.

Introduction

1. In 2003, the Scottish Executive published A Strategic Framework for Scottish Aquaculture ( SFSA) and associated action plans containing 33 priorities for action on economic, environmental and social issues. This included an objective 'to enact legislation governing the aquaculture industry in Scotland. The Executive's consultation paper Protecting and Promoting Scotland's freshwater fish and fisheries in 2000 and the subsequent Green Paper of 2001, Scotland's freshwater fish and fisheries: Securing their future drew together potential ideas for policy development for freshwater fisheries. Some of the proposals could, and have been implemented by administrative means, but in order to effect some of the changes identified as necessary, it was clear that new or amended legislation was required.

2. There is now an opportunity to bring forward a Bill in the 2006/2007 session of the Scottish Parliament. The Executive has continued to develop its policy ideas in consultation with stakeholders through the Highlands and Islands Aquaculture Forum ( HIAF), the Freshwater Fisheries Forum and in a series of ongoing bilateral meetings. This consultation document sets out the Scottish Executive's key proposals to build investor confidence in the aquaculture industry and to protect sustainability and biodiversity of wild fish stocks on which the views of all with an interest in Scottish aquaculture and freshwater fisheries are sought. We will also use this opportunity to address any anomalies that may come to light in existing law.

3. The European Commission is currently consulting with Member States on a new Fish Health Directive. It is possible that the Directive will oblige Member States to legislate in areas of fish health that are addressed in this Consultation Document. We cannot say with certainty when the Directive will come into force or what obligations it will place on Member States, but it may be that the content of the Aquaculture and Fisheries Bill will have to be amended in the light of the pace and nature of negotiations on the Directive.

4. The Strategic Framework also contained an objective for the aquaculture trade associations to develop a Code of Good Practice to raise industry standards to their highest level. Work on that Code has now been concluded and it is expected to enter into use from the beginning of 2006. The Executive's proposals are not intended to compete with the industry Code that is being developed. Rather, the proposals set out in this consultation document seek to supplement and complement that Code in driving up standards. It may in time prove useful for the Scottish Ministers to be able to adopt a code of practice and the Executive may consider powers to enable this.

5. Over the past year, the Freshwater Fisheries Forum has been developing its thinking on the conservation, management and exploitation of stocks. The Forum set up a management sub-group to look specifically at the issue of a new management structure for freshwater fisheries in Scotland. Work undertaken by the management sub-group has shown that the most favoured structure would be a 'Unitary Authority' model covering both salmonids and coarse fish. However, it is clear that the work required to develop this approach particularly taking account of the legislative implications of replacing District Salmon Fishery Boards would take longer than the timescale available for this Bill. In addition, any question of changes to the funding of freshwater fisheries should be addressed in conjunction with the development of new management structure. Therefore, this Bill will not address the question of changes to funding or management structures for freshwater fisheries.

6. A future legislative opportunity will have to be sought to enact the new management proposals once they have been developed in detail. In the meantime, Part IV to this document summarises the work of the management sub-group to date and we would welcome any comments on this issue.

7. The publications referenced in this introduction may be viewed online at: www.scotland.org.uk/Topics/Fisheries/afBill/addread

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