draft Scotland Act 1998 (Specification of Devolved Tax) (Wild fisheries) Order 2017

Lesley Laird Excerpts

Tuesday 12th December 2017 General Committees

[Lesley Laird (Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath) (Lab)]

The order before us today is required to help enable the Scottish Government to implement their plans to modernise the management framework of Scotland’s salmon and freshwater fisheries. Recently, the Scottish Government commissioned an independent review of wild fisheries in Scotland, which concluded in 2014. One of the review’s recommendations was that the Scottish Government should be afforded the power to adopt appropriate management tools. Any such power would include the flexibility to change the way in which income is raised for fisheries management; it is currently raised through a fisheries assessment levy.

The draft order will give the Scottish Parliament legislative competence to allow Scottish Ministers the power to make regulations imposing a tax on the owners or occupiers of wild, freshwater fisheries of any species, or owners or occupiers of the right to fish for Atlantic salmon in Atlantic salmon fisheries. The Scottish Government have indicated that it is their intention to use that power by introducing provisions to their wild fisheries Bill that will allow Scottish Ministers to set, collect and retain fishery assessment levies in circumstances in which Scottish Ministers do not approve a district salmon fishery board fishery management plan.

The levies proposed by the wild fisheries review on both businesses and individual anglers are considered by HM Treasury to be taxes and so outside the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament. In order to introduce a wild fisheries Bill with tax provisions into the Scottish Parliament, the Scottish Government require an amendment to be made to part 4A of the 1998 Act. The amendment will deliver funding flexibility in Scotland and enable the Scottish Government to address changing and potentially unforeseen pressures in the future. For that reason, the Labour party will support the order.