Chamber and committees

Between 31 December 2012 and 19 November 2015, the Scottish Government is aware of 23 beavers on Tayside that are known to have been collected for post mortem examination. Of these, 21 beavers had been shot and the remaining 2 were killed in road traffic accidents. No dead animals reported to Scottish Natural Heritage since October 2015 have shown signs of having been shot. The Scottish Government is aware of anecdotal reports of the killing of beavers this year, but has no further firm evidence of such activity.

I met with representatives of Graham’s Dairy on 5 December 2014 at Grahams Bridge of Allan site where I received a tour of the Dairy and a brief outline of their development plans at Hill of Drip and Airthrey Kerse. I should like to address the specific point on S5W-00104 by explaining that due to a Parliament’s Chamber Desk system problem we did not have this question in our system for which I should like to apologise.

We have had some initial internal discussions about whether or not the guidance in the Scottish Seal Management Code of Practice on this might be revised.

We know, however, that it is a complex area involving an extremely delicate balance between carcass recovery and the health and safety of individuals being asked to recover any carcasses.

We need to be aware that it may not, ultimately, prove possible to do more than encourage carcass recovery where it is safe to do so.

The EU has produced reports on the possible extension of mandatory country of origin requirements to other meats, dairy products and meat and dairy when used as key ingredients in other foods, however the commission favours a voluntary approach. The Scottish Government continues to work with Food Standards Scotland and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to ensure that Scottish interests are reflected in on-going EU discussions on country of origin labelling.

The number of seal carcasses recovered and the numbers examined at post mortem each year is as follows:

The information on carcasses recovered is derived from statutory seal licence returns submitted quarterly by seal licence holders. The information on post-mortems is derived from the Scottish Marine Animal Strandings Scheme.

There are several reasons why not all animals recovered are examined at post-mortem:- firstly not all carcasses recovered are in a fresh enough condition for post-mortem, second in many cases cause of death is very clear from physical inspection making post-mortem less of a priority and lastly expensive post-mortems are reserved for a random sample of cases or for cases where a cause of death is unclear.

The cause of death in all cases examined at post-mortem was physical trauma due to shooting and death was almost immediate in 34 out of 40 cases. In the remaining 6 cases, the evidence regarding immediate death was unclear with potential welfare concerns in, perhaps, 2 of these 6 cases.

*In some cases, carcasses, which cannot be recovered at the time of shooting, will later come ashore and be reported by members of the public.

The Scottish Government is continuing to engage via Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs with the current greening Simplification Review undertaken by the European commission. We anticipate that this may result in changes to the detailed implementation rules for greening, to be announced by the commission later in 2016.

There are no regulations which are specific to gas gun bird scarers.

Responsibility for dealing with the majority of complaints about noise, including from bird scarers/gas guns, rests with local authorities who have a duty to investigate such complaints under the statutory nuisance provisions of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (EPA). Part III of the EPA enables local authorities to take action to secure the abatement of a statutory nuisance.

The Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland published and submitted to Scottish Ministers on 26 May its reports and final recommendations for the number of councillors and the electoral ward boundaries in each of Scotland's 32 local authorities, following completion of its Fifth Electoral Reviews. Ministers are now considering those recommendations, and will take decisions on whether to implement them once that consideration has been completed. There is no statutory deadline by which such decisions must be taken.

The following table contains information in respect of the number of people reported, prosecuted and convicted under sections 11 to 11 I of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 between April 2011 and June 2016. Please note that no cases were reported in January to March 2016. The cases against two of the people prosecuted are still ongoing so it is not yet known whether they will lead to a conviction.

In addition the table provides information on the number of people reported in respect of whom a fiscal direct measure has been given. Direct measures are a form of prosecutorial action other than court proceedings. In these cases, the type of direct measure given was either a monetary fiscal fine or a warning.

Progress of these Nature Conservation Marine Protected Area proposals has been paused to address EU obligations regarding protection of harbour porpoise and bird species, and to focus efforts on delivering management measures for existing protected areas.