Chamber and committees

In the first quarter of operation of the seal licensing system, a total of five seal carcasses (three grey and two common) were recovered by licence holders.

No licences were issued to take any seals under sections 110 (1) (f) or 110 (1) (g) of the Marine (Scotland Act) 2010. A single licence was issued to take seals under section 110 (1) (a) for research purposes.

Only one licence has been issued to permit the shooting of one common seal at the edge of a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) where seals are designated features. This licence includes strict conditions governing the location and circumstances in which this seal may be shot which is at some distance from the main locations used by seals. It was considered that this would not have an adverse effect on the qualifying interests of common seals for the local SAC.

In the first quarter of operation of the seal licensing system, no seals were killed during attempts to take them in accordance with a seal licence issued under the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010.

Information on numbers of seals shot under licence during the first quarter of operation of the seal licensing system can be found on the Marine Scotland website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/topics/marine/licensing/seallicensing.

Licences to shoot seals only permit shooting by marksmen who Marine Scotland is satisfied have adequate skills and experience in using firearms. Information on skills and experience of marksmen is collected as part of the licensing process.

Marine Scotland carried out Appropriate Assessments before issuing seal licences under the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 for all licences within 20 km of grey seal Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) and within 50 km of common seal SACs.

In the first quarter of operation of the seal licensing system, no seals were reported injured during attempts to kill or take them in accordance with a seal licence issued under the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010.

We have no current plans to amend section 28 of the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006. The Scottish Law Commission, in its report on Succession http://www.scotlawcom.gov.uk/download_file/view/390/, has recommended changes to section 29 of the 2006 Act.

No. The Government does not provide guidance to the courts on these matters. However, information on section 28 is available in the explanatory notes to the Act at www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2006/2/notes/contents and in our publication Family Matters: Living Together in Scotland which is available at www.scotland.gov.uk/familylaw.