Chamber and committees

There are two wind turbines located on land owned by Scottish Government. Both are located on the Isle of Barra. The total capacity is 930KW.

The Scottish Government will continue to pursue effective deer management that will help secure our climate and nature objectives, on land owned by the Scottish Government and other land. This includes changes that are being made to deer legislation through the Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill, implementing recommendations of the Deer Working Group, and progressing deer management priorities set by the Strategic Deer Board.

2020 £22244.75

2021 £17596.71

2022 £18675.86

2023 £34395.19

2024 £35329.33

The Scottish Government own 126 bulls to operate the crofting cattle improvement scheme, however for the majority of the year these bulls are kept on crofters own holdings.

We do not hold information on the numbers of livestock owned and managed by our farm and croft tenants.

Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS), is the executive agency which manages Scotland’s national forests and land. The majority of deer management on land owned by the Scottish Government on behalf of the nation is undertaken by FLS. Alongside land owned by the Scottish Government, public bodies also manage deer on public land they are responsible for. This includes NatureScot and Scottish Water. Further detail on the deer management activities of these organisations is as follows.

Forestry and Land Scotland

FLS collects data, on a daily basis, for each deer culled on SNFL by its Wildlife Rangers and contractors, and on a monthly basis for recreational stalkers.

The data collected includes; species, sex, whether adult, yearling or juvenile, lactating females or whether a foetus is present, the presence of disease, the date, time, location (6-figure grid reference) and forest structure in which the deer was shot, whether it was shot by an FLS ranger, contractor or recreational stalker, shot placement, the larder in which the carcass was processed/chilled and length of time in the larder, carcass weight, whether shot under out of season or night shooting authorisation, and the end-use of the carcass (ie private sale, sold to venison dealer or is for domestic use by recreational stalker).

NatureScot

In addition to the annual cull data that NatureScot collects they also make regular and frequent assessments of deer populations on the NNRs it manages. This is done on a priority basis with the larger NNRs where deer management is a priority They use a range of techniques including; helicopter, drone and foot counts as well as dung counting. They also undertake Herbivore Impact Assessments to better understanding the impacts of the deer on the vegetation and habitats.

Scottish Water

Scottish Water does not monitor or keep records of deer numbers on their operational property, the data they do collect relates only to their rural catchment estate in East Grampian and is provided in the answers to S6W-34627 and
S6W-34630 on 26 February 2025.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Scottish Government has been actively working to increase the number of wind turbines on land it owns. The vast majority of the land owned by Scottish Government is occupied by croft tenants. Third party lease negotiations require the support of the crofting tenants and approval by the Scottish Land Court before the development can proceed.

Scottish Government does not directly use any electricity generated by wind turbines on land it owns. We do not hold information on the amount of electricity supplied to the grid.

The Scottish Government is committed to modernising deer management to tackle high deer numbers, specifically in order to help us to achieve our biodiversity and carbon objectives. We continue to pursue a range of actions to deliver this commitment.

The Scottish Government’s future legislative programme has been set out as part of the 2024-25 Programme for Government. The Natural Environment Bill was introduced to parliament on 20 February 2025 and will bring forward significant reforms to the Deer (Scotland) Act 1996.

In addition to this we are working on the Deer Working Group recommendations that do not require primary legislation through the Strategic Deer Board.

Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS), is the executive agency which manages Scotland’s national forests and land. The majority of deer management on land owned by the Scottish Government on behalf of the nation is undertaken by FLS. Alongside land owned by the Scottish Government, public bodies also manage deer on public land they are responsible for. A number of these bodies are represented on the Strategic Deer Board.

We do not hold this information.

Wind turbine developments on Scottish Government owned land follow the standard processes detailed in Scotland’s planning regulations.