Marine Bill

Thank you, Presiding Officer.

This debate has highlighted our marine and coastal environment which contains many special and some unique landscapes of national and international renown. We have distinctive habitats, such as sea lochs and maerl beds. Scottish waters are among the most diverse in the world, supporting 8,000 complex and over 36,000 single cell species and animals. Two examples which come to mind are basking shark and leatherback turtle.

And my own South of Scotland region has a large part of the Scottish coastline - the warm Solway coast on the west; and East Lothian and Berwickshire Coast. I estimate over 600 kms of coastline.

Liberal Democrats welcome any proposal for a marine national park and if I could plug the South of Scotland, the Solway Firth in the west of my region was one of the five contenders as a location. Hopefully that will happen when the marine legislation has been worked up and I would seek an assurance from the cabinet secretary that those plans have not been put on the back burner.

As well as the biodiversity within our seas, the coastline is important economically as it supports communities whether through fishing, aquaculture or tourism. Some facts:-

1. 16,000 jobs in fishing and aquaculture generate a landing value of £300m from Scottish boats and a "farm gate" value of £340m from aquaculture. Scotland produces about 90% of UK farmed fish and shellfish

2. Over 500 million people visit Historic Scotland's staffed coastal and island properties generating some £2.5m of income

3. Recreational diving opportunities attract many thousands of divers every year - St Abbs, Eyemouth with its flora wrecks including U-Boats.

4. Oil and gas supports 164,000 jobs

There is cross party agreement that Scotland's seas should be managed in a coherent way; in a manner which addresses social, economic and environmental factors. The difficult part of course is working out how that's actually achieved in practical terms.

As a Liberal Democrat I welcome the - hopefully early - prospect of a Scottish Marine Bill which will complement UK legislation, complex though that process may be. I do however share the disappointment of colleagues that proposals have still not been brought forward despite the cabinet secretary's upbeat words in June last year.

As Mike Rumbles stated there are several key issues which should be addressed in bringing forward a Scottish Bill. The Scottish Government must seek the agreement of Westminster for the Scottish Parliament to have exclusive jurisdiction out to the 200 nautical mile limit over marine conservation and there needs to be an integrated system of marine spatial planning; crucially, these two things will build on current powers over sea fisheries and offshore renewable energy. A 12 mile bill would not be a marine bill, but more like a beach bill.

Without any kind of streamlined framework for coastal zone management, there has been increasing evidence of environmental degradation. A more integrated approach would reduce uncertainty, and bring real benefits to all users of the marine and coastal environments.

It's therefore vital that the Westminster and Holyrood Bills complement each other so that there is consistency in planning our uses of the sea, and in protecting sites for rare wildlife. The Scottish Government needs to work constructively with the UK Government - I can assure him that the people of Scotland are fed up with the old SNP line of blaming Westminster for all that's wrong, and I look to the cabinet secretary for details and assurances of discussions. Is the cabinet secretary making progress in obtaining the essential control over our seas out to 200nm?

Can the cabinet secretary also give an assurance that licensing arrangements will be aligned with proposals to protect the marine environment under the proposed Bill? There are concerns that the Marine Management Organisation, which will be set up under the UK Marine Bill, has already had gas and oil removed from its remit, and there is no guarantee that it will be given carbon capture and storage either. This suggests that protection of the marine environment is not being sufficiently considered.

Licensing for offshore storage of natural gas and carbon dioxide needs to take full account of environmental risks, and should integrate with future provisions for managing and protecting the marine environment. They should ensure that consultation with stakeholders takes place before licences are granted for importation and storage of combustible gas and carbon dioxide. Can the cabinet secretary provide assurances that this is being looked at?

Presiding Officer,

Liberal Democrats welcome a better, more streamlined approach to marine conservation and management.

Liberal Democrats very much welcome the introduction of a Scottish Marine Bill.

We look to the cabinet secretary for assurances that that will happen sooner rather than later.

The Scottish Government should not delay the delivery of better marine management and I sincerely hope that the cabinet secretary does make every effort to secure more devolved power to the Scottish Parliament in co-operation with westminster.

I look for support across the floor for the Liberal Democrat motion.