Chamber and committees

The multi-stakeholder task group continues to meet on a regular basis and is making good progress towards the development of a national strategy for 20 mph speed limits which incorporates the 2021 Programme for Government commitment “We will ensure all appropriate roads in built-up areas have a safer speed limit of 20 mph by 2025, forming a task group to plan the most effective route for implementation”.

Transport Scotland formed sub groups to develop the place criteria for 20 mph speed limits and research the development of pre and post communication plans to support behaviour change. Funding has been allocated to assist road authorities in carrying out road assessments on their network which is expected to be complete by Spring 2023. This is a key milestone agreed at the task group, noting that further consideration and evidence was needed on the number of roads affected and the financial implications before an informed decision on the most effective route to implement 20 mph speed limits can be reached. Transport Scotland has also been discussing the possibility of some roads authorities becoming early adopters of 20 mph speed limits to make progress on the delivery of the national strategy.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all children in primary school receive at least two hours of physical education (PE) every school week, and that all young people in secondaries 1 to 4 receive at least two 50-minute periods of PE every school week. Under Curriculum for Excellence, schools and local authorities have the flexibility to decide upon the content of PE at local levels taking into account the needs and circumstances of all children and young people in attendance. This includes whether Bikeability training should be made available within PE.

Where a school is considering whether to offer Bikeability training as a part of PE, we would urge that there are clear links to the Curriculum for Excellence experiences and outcomes within physical education and that the learning is appropriate for all learners within the lesson. Alternatively, schools could also consider offering Bikeability training as an extra-curricular activity. Any school interested in obtaining more information about Bikeability training can access this through Cycling Scotland's website on the following link: Bikeability Scotland - Schools - Cycling Scotland .

The Scottish Government has welcomed the report from Environmental Standards Scotland. They requested some clarifications and made a number of recommendations on how processes relating to the enforcement of acoustic deterrent devices could be improved. They were content with Marine Scotland’s replies and the amendments made to procedures, and concluded that ESS had "no ongoing concerns."

Details of fish farm inspections relating to Acoustic Deterrent Devices will shortly be published on the Scottish Government website, all ESS recommendations will then have been addressed. Marine Scotland continue to monitor compliance with unannounced inspections.

The Scottish Government does not consider setting a nationwide target for sustainable deer populations to be the most effective method of meeting our Biodiversity Strategy targets for 2030. Our approach is to assess and identify priority areas where there is evidence of, or a high risk of deer damage, to ensure deer management efforts are focused and coordinated where there is the greatest need.

We set out our commitment to modernising Scotland's systems of deer management in response to the independent Deer Working Group and work is being taken forward as part of our new deer project. This project sits under the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy Programme Board and work is being taken forward via four workstreams focusing on: legislation; regulation; incentives; and operational delivery.

Under the provisions of Curriculum for Excellence education authorities and schools have the flexibility to decide upon the content of their own lessons at the local level, this includes for activities offered in physical education (PE) lessons, taking into account the local needs and circumstances of all children and young people, including boys and girls.

The Scottish Government does not hold information about how many schools offer access to football as a part of their PE lessons or afterschool clubs, however schools can offer football training where is a demand for it.

Active Schools aim to provide more and higher quality opportunities to take part in sport and physical activity before school, during lunchtime and after school, and to develop effective pathways between schools and sports clubs in the local community. sport scotland works in partnership with all 32 local authorities to invest in and support the Active Schools Network.

All Active Schools teams are working to deliver their mainstream extracurricular programmes with an inclusive focus whilst targeting those groups in greatest need of inclusion. This allows for local teams to use their local data to determine who the inactive are for their school communities to ensure that they can tailor delivery on a need led basis.Specific activities such as football, and the structure of these activities, provided through Active Schools are at the discretion of each local authority/Active Schools team.

I understand that sport scotland will write to Mr Ruskell separately to highlight various opportunities that girls and young women have to take part in sport and physical activity – including Active Schools, and more widely across club and community sport. sport scotland are currently processing the 2021-22 Active Schools data. Data on girls and young women’s participation in football through the Active Schools programme will be shared with Mr Ruskell by sport scotland once available.

The process of gathering cull returns is ongoing and NatureScot continues to gather returns for the last three years. The most up to date figures are captured in the table below and will be available on the NatureScot website later this month. These figures will be regularly updated as additional information is received.

At present returns from approximately 950 properties for the 21/22 are still to be received.

The Scottish Government is focused on identifying key areas where deer management efforts will be concentrated to ensure biodiversity and climate change targets can be met.

The operational delivery workstream of the Scottish Government’s new deer project board is responsible for identifying priority areas where a focused and coordinated approach to deer management is required. This work is being carried out alongside the work of the regulation, incentives and legislative workstreams, and overseen by the project board.

During the current outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1, representatives of the Scottish Government Animal Disease Control Branch have had daily interactions with Defra and the Welsh Government regarding all manner of policy matters relating to the outbreak, including the impact of avian influenza on the game industry.

In addition to this, the Scottish Government, along with Defra, the Welsh Government and DAERA (NI) Officials have hosted twice-weekly meetings with the GB Avian Diseases Core Group (with representatives from industries impacted by the outbreak), which includes the Game Farmer’s Association.

These discussions have included consideration of how government could assist with the shortage of gamebird hatching eggs available for import into the UK from France, which had been hampered by the unprecedented number of outbreaks of HPAI across a number of French regions, in particular the Vendee and Loire Atlantique areas, where the majority of French game farms are located. These areas had been accordingly subjected to strict restrictions on the movement of game birds and hatching eggs, including restricting exports to other countries.

In response to this and in acknowledgment of the dependency of our game sector on imports from these affected French regions – and also to the narrow window of this part of the breeding cycle for game birds – the Scottish Government, along with Defra and the Welsh Government, worked with the French government (including the Chief Veterinary Officer of France) and industry officials to develop a temporary strategy whereby gamebird hatching eggs from HPAI restricted zones in France could be licensed for landing at ports in the UK.

Under this scheme, a new model health certificate for the import of hatching eggs, other than ratites, from France had been developed to accompany consignments that would be imported under licence, and which would require adherence to a set of strict biosecurity requirements throughout the transfer process.

However, the scheme was not taken forward at the request of French authorities and industry, who reported that weather conditions at the time in France, in the form of extremely high temperatures, had not only had a significant impact on egg production levels, but also presented challenges for the safe and successful transportation of gamebird eggs.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with the game industry, along with the poultry and other captive bird sectors, to minimise the spread, and the social and economic impact, of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Scotland.

The Scottish Government does not intend to consider the introduction of the full registration of all non-native gamebird releases for monitoring purposes.