Member

The Minister laid out an incredibly strong case at Second Reading in what was a very powerful and well-written speech about the need for the flexibilities that this Bill produces. I feel there is one more flexibility that needs to be dealt with, and that is on aquaculture. The logic that applied in that speech to England, Wales and Northern Ireland most certainly applies, in my view, to Scotland; it is these flexibilities that Scotland should have. I was keen to use this Bill as an ability to put in an amendment so that the flexibilities could be inserted for Scotland. This led to multiple discussions with Legislation Office staff about residual powers and all sorts of thinking about how it was possible. I thank them for those discussions, and I think they changed their view a couple of times over the course of the discussions, but I accept that it is not possible to amend the Bill so that we can bring Crown Estate Scotland into line with the Crown Estate using this Bill.