Stewart Stevenson (Banffshire and Buchan Coast) (SNP): What support is available for the over-12m white-fish fleet? I note that 9,000 boxes were landed at Peterhead over Monday and Tuesday, and only around 1,300 were landed today. How does the support available to our vital fishing industry in Scotland compare to that available elsewhere?
The Cabinet Secretary for Rural Economy and Tourism (Fergus Ewing): Mr Stevenson has represented a fishing constituency for rather a long time now.
It is essential to Scotland that we support our fishing communities through this crisis. We have delivered three packages of financial support, totalling £22.5 million. The one that was announced most recently was of £3.5 million for vessels of over 12m. That package of support was developed after detailed dialogue with fishing representatives from, for example, the Clyde, the Western Isles and, of course, the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation. It was devised with their support and co-operation and will, I think, provide significant support to vessels.
Vessels have fixed costs, and harbour dues, rental costs for equipment and a whole series of on-costs have to be paid for, at a time when little or no revenue is coming in, as Mr Stevenson pointed out—revenue is certainly much lower.
I cannot speak for what happens down south; that is for my colleagues in the United Kingdom Government to do. However, I am pleased that we have been able to devise packages for vessels of under and over 12m and for hard-pressed processors, particularly in the shellfish and brown trout sectors, which face financial armageddon.
Packages are being administered now by an excellent team in Marine Scotland; I am proud of the work that they and colleagues across the public services in Scotland are doing. We are determined to get that money out as quickly as possible and, with the co-operation of members who represent fishing communities, I think that we can succeed in that task, to help the sector to weather the Covid storm.
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About Stewart Stevenson
Born in 1946 and brought up in Cupar, Fife, I was educated at the local school - Bell Baxter - and studied Mathematics at the University of Aberdeen, graduating with a modest degree in 1969. That's also the year Sandra & I married. Her family comes from the North East.Thirty years later I retired from Bank of Scotland as Director of Technology Innovation and was elected to the Scottish Parliament in 2001 as member for Banff & Buchan having first joined the SNP in 1961.
I then represented the new constituency of Banffshire & Buchan Coast Constituency in our Parliament. I retired as an MSP on 5th May 2021
I was also previously (2007-2010), Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change and (2011-2012), Minister for Environment and Climate Change.
I hold the honorary posts of President of the Scottish Association for Public Transport
and Vice-President of Railfuture UK.I am a Fellow of The Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, a Member at The Institution of Engineering and Technology, a Professional Member of the Association for Computing Machinery, a Member of the Institute of Advanced Motorists and an Associate Member of the Highland Reserve Forces' and Cadets' Association.
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