Chamber and committees

Through the Aquaculture and Fisheries (Scotland) Act (AFSA) 2007, the Scottish Government requires satisfactory measures to be in place at fish farm sites for the purposes of the containment of fish and the prevention of escape of fish. Where satisfactory measures are found not to be in place, Scottish Ministers may serve an enforcement notice. Fish farm operators are required to report the details of any circumstances which caused or might have caused an escape of fish from a fish farm site. In this case, the site operator has followed reporting protocols and reported the incident to the Fish Health Inspectorate (FHI). The FHI has attended the site and is conducting an escape investigation and enhanced containment inspection. In addition, the details of this incident will be published on Scotland’s Aquaculture website. Any escape of farmed fish is regrettable and we expect all farmers to minimise the risk of escapes.

We will continue to work with the sector to reduce the risk of escapes, supported by existing legislation and the FHI’s associated inspection regime. The Scottish Government supports innovation in the sector, including where it helps to reduce the risk of fish escaping from fish farms.

Wildfire, as we saw this summer, is very damaging to our precious peatland carbon stores and the Scottish Government is incredibly grateful to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, gamekeepers, land managers, volunteers, partners, landowners, the extended local community, the wider land management sector and indeed to everyone who played a part in getting these under control.

Scottish Ministers held a wildfires summit on 14 October to consider how we can together to improve our preparedness for wildfires in the future. The increased wildfire risk in Scotland cannot be ignored and muirburn is a tool we cannot afford to lose.

Delaying the muirburn licensing scheme is a difficult but necessary decision to ensure there are no unintended consequences in regards to muirburns role in wildfire mitigation.

The Scottish Government remains committed to the aims of the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024 which includes introducing a licensing scheme and associated training requirements for muirburn so that it can be undertaken in an environmentally sustainable manner.

We are hopeful that the delay to the implementation of the licensing scheme until Autumn 2026 will provide us with the time and opportunity to carefully consider the upcoming changes to muirburn practices and how these changes can be brought forward in a way which does not adversely affect our ability to prevent and respond to wildfires.

The Scottish Government is keen to learn, along with others, about the impact of wildfires to develop a better understanding of fire risks and fire resilient landscapes.

NatureScot will be reporting and monitoring the impact of the fire, which affected a relatively small area, on the Muir of Dinnet National Nature Reserve. They will also look into assessing the impact on Culbean Hill Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSI) and learning about the impact on the other SSSIs.

Although the Scottish Government has not made any specific assessment of the impact of public exposure to fire related fine particulate matter, we are implementing a wide range of actions to further improve air quality which are set out in our Cleaner Air for Scotland 2 strategy.

National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) designates all green data centres of a major scale as part of National Development 12: Digital Fibre Network. What constitutes a major development is defined within the The Town and Country Planning (Hierarchy of Developments) (Scotland) Regulations 2009.

There is an opportunity for Scotland to become a leader in green data centres given our capacity to generate energy from renewable sources.

In 2023, 70% of electricity generated in Scotland was from renewable sources – a marked increase compared to less than one-third (32%) a decade previously. As of June 2025, there is an estimated capacity of 76.5 GW of renewable energy projects, including storage, in the planning pipeline in Scotland. This means there is ample opportunity to use excess renewable generation for data centres, helping to reduce the impact and taxpayer costs of network constraints, with £390 million paid to Scottish wind farm operators in 2024 alone. As the National Energy System Operator (NESO) recognised in its 2025 Future Energy Scenarios, up to a fifth of Great Britain’s future data centre demand could be based in Scotland.

While we have no immediate plans to introduce planning guidance for energy-intensive developments, strategic planning is being undertaken by the Scottish Government to accommodate any infrastructure demands of AI technologies, such as AI data centres. Together with the UK and Welsh Governments, we have jointly commissioned NESO to produce a Strategic Spatial Energy Plan (SSEP) for Great Britain. The SSEP will spatially optimise a specified volume of flexible data centre demand (1-2GW). This will indicate where opportunities for energy system benefits exist, such as co-location of renewables and data centres, supporting the development of government policy on the spatial location of data centre demand. The Regional Energy Strategic Plan for Scotland will further enable the coordinated development of the energy system across multiple vectors.

National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) designates all green data centres of a major scale as part of National Development 12: Digital Fibre Network. This includes AI-focused green data centres meeting the major development criteria.

It will be for the planning authority to interpret and apply NPF4 according to the circumstances of each individual case. To be considered a green data centre, planning authorities may wish to consider criteria such as the extent to which the data centre is powered from renewable energy sources; makes use of energy efficient technologies; seeks to minimise water consumption; and supports the re-use of excess heat.

The Scottish Government works to address a wide range of current and potential future impacts of climate change on Scotland. The actions and policies it is committed to delivering to build resilience and adapt to climate change are set out in the Scottish National Adaptation Plan (SNAP3). As established in the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2008, this is a five-year cycle, with each new Adaptation Plan responding to the latest climate risk evidence base provided through technical advice and risk assessments published by the Climate Change Committee and UK Government. With regards to the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), the most recent Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA3) from the CCC does not factor AMOC into the underlying evidence base of climate risk and opportunities. The CCRA3 notes that a shutdown of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is considered very unlikely this century and is therefore not included in the specific evidence base on which SNAP3 has been designed to respond.

The Scottish Government has received advice and recommendations from NatureScot and Scottish Forestry with respect to the proposed Nature Conservation Order to protect the Parallel Roads of Lochaber Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) at Achnabobane. The NatureScot advice reflected local discussions between The Highland Council, Scottish Forestry and Police Scotland which sought to address damage to the SSSI.