§ Mr. Lawsonasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what estimate he has made of the cost to the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board of carrying out its duty under Section 9 (1) of the Hydro-Electric Development (Scotland) Act, 1943, to avoid, as far as possible, injury to fisheries and to the stock of fish in any waters.
§ Mr. RossCosts under this provision arise mainly from adapting the design of hydro-electric schemes to conserve fish; purchasing fishings, either separately or along with land; hatching and stocking fish either for the Board's own fishings or to obviate compensation claims; and maintaining fishings and undertaking fishing research.
Most of this expenditure cannot be separately identified, but expenditure on hatching and stocking amounted in 1966 67 to some £28,000 and in 1967-68 to about £32,000, and the last major acquisitions of fisheries independently of land, undertaken between 1959 and 1962 for the Loch Awe Scheme, cost £111,000.
The Board also incurs expenditure in paying compensation for adverse effects of its operations on fishings: in the last two years this amounted to £37,750.