Current status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 14 March 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider extending the powers of the Scottish SPCA to enable the investigation of a wider range of wildlife crime.
We set out our commitment to establish an independent taskforce to consider whether the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Scottish SPCA) should be given extra powers to investigate wildlife crime in both the 2021-22 Programme for Government and in our Scottish Government and Scottish Green Party Shared Policy Programme.
The taskforce’s role will include due consideration of the potential implications of any proposed changes to the powers of the Scottish SPCA. The taskforce will report back by the end of 2022.
We will set out the remit of the taskforce in more detail in due course.