Scotland Act 1998 (River Tweed) Order 2006

My Lords, I, too, welcome the noble and learned Lord to this House and to his new position. I welcome him to the Scottish lobby in this House and hope that we will hear more from him in our Scottish discussions. Like my noble friend Lord Maclennan, the Explanatory Memorandum gave me the impression that this was just a consolidation measure. But the noble and learned Lord has made certain that we understand that it is not just a consolidation measure, although I am certain that some aspects are consolidatory. I declare an interest as a netting rights proprietor on the River Forth in the Clackmannanshire, Falkirk and Stirling district, and I shall come back to an issue on that. First, I note that it will be Scottish Ministers who legislate about the River Tweed, and I am content about that. At a trivial level on the subject of prosecution, I notice that, should an offender be taken to court, if it is in England it will be before a JP but, if it is in Scotland, it will be before the sheriff. I would probably rather appear before a JP because of the weight that the sheriff court carries. One point on which I have a question—I appreciate that I did not give notice of this and so I am very happy to have a written answer—is the handing in of netting rights. It is certainly an issue on the Forth and I guess that that may well be the case on the Tweed. At present, if it comes to it, I want to hand in some of my netting rights, but my salmon fishery board is not certain how to facilitate that. I wonder whether there are any guidelines in the Act or, indeed, whether this issue has been thought about. Clearly, if someone seeks to extinguish netting rights, that will have implications for funding. In the case of the Tweed, it will be the River Tweed Commission. Obviously, if netting rights cease to exist, there will be less assessment and that will affect the financing of the commission. I am perfectly content to hear about that in writing; otherwise, I wish the order well.