Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to the creation of a Scottish Veterinary Service (SVS) to ensure there are highly trained staff to provide Scotland with good animal health and food safety to meet all our needs across the public and private sector for animal health issues.

Animal health and welfare matters are devolved, and were so before the creation of an Scottish Veterinary Service was considered. The Scottish Government is satisfied that any future changes to the arrangements for the delivery of veterinary controls will be purely operational and have negligible implications for the operation of the Internal Market Act 2020.

Nevertheless, animal diseases do not respect borders, and there will be areas where communication, cooperation and interoperability between the future Scottish Veterinary Service and its counterparts in the rest of GB or the UK will be required for effective delivery, such as data sharing, science and research, contingency planning and mutual assistance for major incidents and disease outbreaks.

Scottish Government Officials liaise regularly with the UK Government and the other Devolved Administrations on animal health and welfare matters, including the SVS, through the mechanisms established under the UK Framework for Animal Health and Welfare.

The UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Act 2021 sets out the requirement for annual reports of the Scottish Ministers use, planned use and considered use of the Section 1(1) power of the Act. The Scottish Government has no plans to propose changes to the Act in respect of reporting its use of the Section 1(1) power. However, The Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, Culture and External Affairs wrote to the Convener of the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture committee on 28 June to propose providing further information annually on the policy commitment to EU alignment, namely:

· how alignment has been considered in respect of legislation made in the Scottish Parliament over the reporting year;

· an assessment of EU legislation made over the reporting year that may be relevant to the commitment to align;

· where Scotland’s policy priorities in respect of the EU lie in the coming year; and

· reporting of the impact of the UK Government’s Retained EU Law Bill on Scotland and our ability to align with the EU to protect high standards.

Ministers look forward to receiving the Committee’s consideration of these proposals, and shall continue to work with the committee to ensure transparency in our approach to Parliament.

The Scottish Government welcomes that the British Veterinary Association sees advantages and opportunities in the creation of a Scottish Veterinary Service (SVS), and also agrees with the veterinary profession's representative body that there are risks that must be managed. To do so, a Programme has been put in place to manage the work required to establish an SVS.

Animal diseases do not respect borders, and Officials in the Programme have identified areas where communication, cooperation and interoperability between the future Scottish Veterinary Service and its counterparts in the rest of GB or the UK is required for effective delivery, such as data sharing, science and research, contingency planning and mutual assistance for major incidents and disease outbreaks.

Scottish Government Officials liaise regularly with the Animal and Plant health Agency, as well as Defra, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive officials to ensure that suitable arrangements are in place, in due course, to mitigate against any risks to animal health and welfare as a result of different arrangement for the delivery of veterinary controls in Scotland.

Scottish Ministers, the Chief Veterinary Officer, and officials communicate with the British Veterinary Association regularly on this and other animal health and welfare matters, and will continue to do so as the Programme develops.

While the Scottish Government does not currently hold land use data for land as categorised in the question, it does hold information in relation to land use for specific purposes. For example, the Scottish Government's Rural Payments and Inspections Division hold data on the use of land parcels where farmers make applications for funding. The claimant may not, however, be the owner of the land.

Individual land holdings of over 500 hectares will often have a mixture of uses. For example, Scottish Forestry has engaged with 324 separate areas of privately owned land over 500 hectares that are under forest cover and used primarily for timber production and carbon sequestration. These can be broken down as:

• 4 forest management plans over 500 hectares have been approved by Scottish Forestry (Scottish Government agency) since 2011;
• 310 Long Term Forest Plans over 500 hectares have been approved by Scottish Forestry since 2009; and
• 10 Forestry Grant Scheme Woodland Creation cases over 500 hectares have been approved since 2015.

These areas of land will also contribute to natural heritage and nature recovery as they all include areas of native woodland and other habitats.

As outlined in the Scottish Government’s consultation for the forthcoming Land Reform Bill, proposals for compulsory Land Management Plans for large land holdings will require land holders to detail the use and management of their land. This will further improve transparency of land ownership and empower communities.

Stantec’s Community Needs Assessments report on transport connectivity for Cowal and Rosneath is still being finalised and will be published in due course. The outputs from all the Community Needs Assessment will also feed into the Islands Connectivity Plan.

The Scottish Government understands that a Dundee consortium, led by Abertay University, have been successful in their bid to house one of three regional CoSTAR labs, which attracts a portion of the £12.5m funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council for these regional labs.

We welcome engagement with all relevant parties to help ensure the success of this project, and all work that contributes to a sustainable future for Scotland’s creative industries and related technology sectors.

The Scottish Government has not assessed the impacts of source reduction and separation on the availability of residual waste, specifically for the production of SAF, and other fuels, oil and chemicals. However, it is considering potential actions it could take on Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) as it develops its aviation strategy.

The independent review of incineration assessed what residual waste capacity Scotland needs to manage Scotland’s unavoidable, unrecyclable residual waste. It modelled several scenarios, including the impact of meeting Scotland’s waste reduction and recycling targets, and concluded that, if all energy from waste facilities in the development pipeline are built to schedule, there is a risk of long-term overcapacity beginning from 2026 or 2027.

Since May 2021, the Scottish Government has not held any Ministerial meetings with All Perspectives Ltd, which owns GB News.

Within this period, Scottish Government culture officials have also not met with All Perspectives Ltd on either a formal or informal basis.

Since May 2021, the Scottish Government has had 5 Ministerial meetings with STV.  

As outcomes, there was a shared commitment to ensuring the sustainability of public service broadcasting, STV licence renewal, and support for the wider screen sector and creative industries.

Since May 2021, the Scottish Government has had 2 Ministerial meetings with Channel 4.

As outcomes the Scottish Government reiterated its opposition to the proposals from the UK Government to privatise Channel 4. We welcome that these proposals have now been dropped.

Also discussed were Channel 4’s wider plans and opportunities for Scotland Channel 4.