§ Mrs. GoldingTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what steps he intends to take to control the establishment of freshwater cages for salmon smolt rearing in lochs to prevent pollution and the threat to indigenous salmon from escapees; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythFish farming in Scotland is already subject to a number of different authorisation and control procedures. These include provisions contained in the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1972 which provide for control over the establishment of cages for salmon smolt rearing in Scottish freshwater lochs. Powers also exist in the Control of Pollution Act 1974 for the control of water pollution. My hon. Friend, the Minister for Home Affairs and the Environment in354W Scotland, in his answer to the hon. Member for Caithness and Sutherland (Mr. Maclennan) on 10 January 1989 at column 555, announced that we will seek powers to ensure that discharges from fish farms can be controlled as trade effluents by river purification authorities.
The most important measures of protection for wild salmon stocks are good husbandry practice in fish farms and hatcheries and the measures, which the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland administers, under the diseases of fish legislation. My right hon. and learned Friend commissions a wide range of research on salmonid and other freshwater fish and on fish cultivation, including studies of diseases and interaction between wild and farmed stock, with the co-operation of fish farming organisations and other interests. Further studies, including work on the genetic diversity of salmon stocks, are under consideration.