Speeches by Carmichael.

“On the relationship with the UK Government, we now have a situation, after the Crown Estate Act has passed, where your colleagues south of the border have access to Treasury guarantees but you as Crown Estate Scotland will not. The Treasury is a UK-wide authority. Is that going to put you at some disadvantage? Ronan O’…”

“Good luck with that.”

“Yes, new HPMAs.”

“Minister Hardy, when do you envisage bringing forward proposals for HPMAs?”

“I am sure we all do.”

“Can you quantify that impact?”

“Minister Hardy, what has been the net impact on fishing opportunity as a consequence of the changes to the MPA designations that you have been describing?”

“You will follow it up for the benefit of this Committee in correspondence.”

“But you are not in a position to offer me one? Ronan O’Hara: Not right now. I am happy to come back to you on that point.”

“Have you ever heard of another auction with a cap on the bids? I have heard of plenty with floors. Ronan O’Hara: Yes. I am sure they are out there.”

“Do you think those should have been decisions for the bidders themselves? Ronan O’Hara: We assessed the market, took evidence and made a decision.”

“Why did you put a cap on the amount that could be bid? Surely the whole point of a commercial auction is that the commercial players make the decision on what they can afford themselves. Ronan O’Hara: Part of the rationale was again balancing social, economic and environmental considerations. The actual design of the l…”

“Do you think our seabed has less worth than New York’s? Ronan O’Hara: Our seabed has world class opportunity, but I also recognise the fact that we have practical considerations such as the terrain, the geography, the route to market, the grid—all those factors. When we seek to price anything, market conditions and ris…”

“That is about right. Given what you can see is possible where you have a different system in New York, do you still think that the judgments that you made in that first leasing round were correct? Ronan O’Hara: I do. I genuinely do, and it comes back to the fact that a house in a salubrious environment and postcode wil…”

“If I suggested to you that it was an auction for an area about a quarter of the size that was auctioned in Scotland and that it realised an income for New York of $4.3 billion, would that be about right? Ronan O’Hara: That sounds about right.”

“£755 million, I stand corrected. Do you know the scope of that auction round in New York and what it realised? Ronan O’Hara: I have heard it in the past; I could not recall the exact figures right now.”

“You talked about global comparators there, but there was an auction round in New York at much the same time, wasn’t there? Your auction round raised £700 million, is that correct? Ronan O’Hara: £755 million.”

“Differently then? Ronan O’Hara: Things can always be different in the future.”

“You could do it better in the future? Ronan O’Hara: I would not say that.”

“Do you think you got that calculation right? Ronan O’Hara: I would suggest that we did. I would suggest it was evidence based. It was methodical. It was fact based. I would also suggest that the nature of the market at present would suggest that we positioned that correctly.”