Chamber and committees

Yes. Section 6(c) of the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 would exempt any person from prosecution who accidently kills a badger while carrying out a lawful action such as driving a vehicle.

The Wildlife and Natural Environment Bill Consultation Document does not intend to suggest that a person found guilty of using badger tongs to kill or take a badger could have done so unknowingly. The consultation document proposes a new offence of knowingly causing or permitting another person to use badger tongs to kill or take a badger.

The Wildlife and Natural Environment Bill Consultation Document does not intend to suggest that a person found guilty of selling or offering to sell a badger could have done so unknowingly. The consultation document proposes a new offence of knowingly causing or permitting another person to sell or offer to sell a badger.

The Marine (Scotland) Bill proposes that consenting for aquaculture should be based on impact rather than activity. This is a complex issue and we continue to listen to representations on the best regime. The aquaculture industry is vitally important to Scotland and in order to help it develop sustainably a strategic approach is required.

Section 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 as amended by the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 now provides the full range of protection to all wild birds as is given by Areas of Special Protection (ASP) with the exception that an ASP Order can also restrict public access to an area. The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 established a right of responsible access to land and inland water throughout Scotland with certain limited exceptions. Scottish Natural Heritage is aware of no instances where public access is a cause for concern on Areas of Special Protection. The Scottish Outdoor Access Code gives additional advice on how to avoid damaging protected sites and disturbing wildlife. Damage would, in many cases, be a criminal offence and be dealt with under relevant legislation.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency''s (SEPA''s) Compliance Assessment Scheme (CAS) improves on the Operator Performance Assessment (OPA) scheme in a number of ways. While OPA only applies to a limited number of industrial sites, CAS will cover all regulatory regimes for which SEPA is responsible. CAS is based on continual assessment of a permit holder''s performance, rather than the single snapshot approach under OPA. CAS is also designed to assess the operation of facilities more precisely by looking at both environmental performance and environmental management. In addition, CAS will enable SEPA to link the level of fees paid by an operator directly to performance, rewarding good performance and penalising poor performance.

Unsatisfactory performance under the Scottish Environment Protection Agency''s (SEPA''s) Operator Performance Assessment (OPA) scheme does not in itself constitute a criminal offence. During the last five years, SEPA has reported a total of 284 cases to the Procurator Fiscal for breaches of permit conditions under a range of environmental regimes. Eleven of these cases involved permit holders who had received an unsatisfactory assessment under the OPA scheme.

Where an operator has failed to achieve a satisfactory assessment under the Scottish Environment Protection Agency''s (SEPA''s) Operator Performance Assessment (OPA) scheme, SEPA works with businesses wherever possible to achieve satisfactory compliance with permit conditions. SEPA has a range of options and approaches designed to improve an operator''s performance. They are contained in SEPA''s Enforcement Policy (available on SEPA''s website at http://www.sepa.org.uk/about_us/policies.aspx). These options range from preliminary discussions and information about good practice, to formal letters, enforcement notices which require the permit holder to comply with set conditions, suspension or revocation of permits, to a report to the Procurator Fiscal.

Close seasons have been unchanged for many years, and there are no immediate intentions to vary the dates. We are consulting on how seasons might be set in future. Were the issue to arise in the meantime Scottish ministers would take advice from the Deer Commission for Scotland and would consult other parties interested in deer management issues.

The current legislation includes any vehicle in the offence of intending to drive deer on any land with the intention of taking, killing or injuring them, unless authorised to do so. However, the use of any aircraft or hovercraft is specifically excluded even when driving deer with authorisation.