Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S6W-34036

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 26 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question by S6W-33053 by Shona Robison on 21 January 2025, what the cost was of contracting media planning and buying agencies in each of the last five years.

Total spend with media agencies over the last five years (2019-2024) was £50,729,800.33, as published here Marketing spend - Marketing spend - gov.scot

Media planning and buying is placed by call-off from the Media Planning, Buying and Associated Services framework (Ref: SP-23-05). The work is competed through the Framework and tenders are evaluated for value and quality. Framework suppliers when bidding are required to provide full detailed costs against indicative volumes, using the price guarantees set under the Framework.

Where appropriate media spend is audited for value against the Framework pricing as well as quality by an independent media auditor on a six monthly basis.

Question reference: S6W-34629

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 26 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its policy is on deer management and culling on land that it owns.

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.

Question reference: S6W-34631

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 26 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the primary reasons are for deer culling on land that it owns, and what proportion of culls are carried out for (a) population control, (b) environmental protection and (c) agricultural purposes.

The primary reasons for the deer management activities on Scottish government-owned land is as follows.

Forestry and Land Scotland

FLS culls deer primarily in order to protect, enhance and restore a wide range of woodland across the 640,000 hectares of public forests and land which it manages which can be damaged by deer overgrazing and trampling vulnerable habitats, preventing young trees from growing. The proportion of the cull carried out for ‘environmental protection’ purposes is 96%-100%. FLS also cull deer to protect grazings and crops as and when required. The proportion of the cull carried out for agricultural purposes is 0%-4%. They do not carry out culling for population control purposes.

NatureScot

The primary reason for deer culling on NatureScot-owned land is environmental protection. This information is not broken down proportionally.

Scottish Water

The primary reasons for deer culling on Scottish Water land include for population control, environmental protection and agricultural purposes. This information is not broken down proportionately.

Question reference: S6W-34616

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 26 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what revenue it has received from rental payments for wind turbines located on land that it owns in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-34618

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 26 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of electricity generated by wind turbines on land that it owns is (a) used directly by its own facilities and (b) supplied to the grid.

Question reference: S6W-34633

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 26 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what revenue it has received from deer culling activities on land that it owns in each of the last five years.

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 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 revenue these organisations have received from deer management activities is as follows.

Forestry and Land Scotland

FLS income from deer carcasses, the associated bye-products and fees from leases/permissions for recreational stalking, has amounted to:

Year	Amount
2019-20	£1750000
2020-21*	£835000
2021-22	£1280000
2022-23	£1440000
2023-24	£1700000

*(reduced culling activity due to Covid-19)

NatureScot

NatureScot revenue is approximately £55,000 in each of the last five years except from in 2020-21 when there was reduced culling activity due to Covid-19. This is includes revenue from stalking leases and venison sales.

Scottish Water

Scottish Water's income from deer management comes from the rent for sporting rights at Backwater and Lintrathen, the total rental income over the last five years comes to £77,000. However, at Backwater this income includes grouse as well as deer, so the total income from deer culling activities will be lower. In addition, there is a lease for shooting at Little Ballo which includes for red deer in the sum of £500 per annum over the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-34632

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 26 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what methods are used for deer culling on land that it owns, and how it ensures humane practices.

Question reference: S6W-34622

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 26 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of the livestock kept on land that it owns is farmed directly by (a) it and (b) under lease or tenancy agreements.

Question reference: S6W-34620

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 26 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to increase the number of wind turbines on land that it owns.

Question reference: S6W-34619

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 26 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the estimated carbon emissions savings have been of wind turbines installed on land that it owns in each of the last five years.