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: S4W-26992

Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 28 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how an annual sustainable harvest of wild salmon will be calculated.

As part of the new proposals underpinning the proposed kill licence scheme, the killing of salmon would be managed on an annual basis by categorising fishery districts and Special Areas of Conservation in relation to their conservation status. Details on how this would be calculated have been published on the Scottish Government website:

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/marine/Salmon-Trout-Coarse/fishreform/licence.

Question reference: S4W-26997

Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 28 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many licences to kill wild salmon are expected to be issued in 2016.

Question reference: S4W-26998

Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 28 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has concluded the criteria for compensating netsmen who do not receive a licence to kill wild salmon.

Question reference: S4W-27000

Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 28 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers that there is a difference between the hereditary rights of active and dormant fishing stations in relation to possible levels of compensation regarding wild salmon fishing.

Question reference: S4W-26999

Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 28 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what estimate it has made of the level of compensation likely to be needed to close mixed fishery netting businesses as part of the wild salmon kill licence strategy.

Question reference: S4O-04651

Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 September 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how Scotland’s traditional arts are funded.

Question reference: S4W-27335

Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 17 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to address (a) increasing numbers of and (b) increasingly dangerous seagulls.

Although regular seabird censuses include species that are particularly problematic in urban environments (herring and lesser black-backed gull), there has only been a single inland gull nesting survey in 2000. Results suggest that approximately 1% of herring gulls nest inland while 22% of lesser black-blacked gulls nest inland. These data represent a baseline figure against which changes in the size of the urban nesting gull population can be assessed when the survey is repeated. This is planned for 2016. At this stage therefore we do not yet have factual evidence about changes to the urban gull nesting population.

It is the responsibility of local authorities to address problems caused by urban gulls. People may interpret the dive bombing and harassment by gulls as exhibiting dangerous behaviour. This behaviour is most commonly associated with the hatching of gull chicks at roof nesting sites where the adult birds are attempting to protect their chicks from potential predators such as man.

Local authorities can help to minimise this behaviour by preventing the eggs from hatching, either by egg and nest removal, or by egg oiling, or by egg replacement with artificial dummy eggs as carried out by Dumfries and Galloway Council. Where necessary, these actions are licensed under Scottish Natural Heritage Licence No. 3/2015, which authorises the killing and taking of certain species of gulls for the purpose of preserving public health and safety and for the purpose of preventing the spread of disease.

The use of falcons is discussed in the Dumfries gull report Use of Falcons to Displace Nesting Gulls from an Urban Area which was a report commissioned by the Scottish Government and was published on 14 April 2010. The report is available at: http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2010/04/14160323/0

It is hoped that local authorities across Scotland will be able to implement the recommendations in this report, and learn from measures deployed by Dumfries and Galloway Council, to help reduce this problem across Scotland.

Question reference: S4O-04622

Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 September 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what evidence it has that orthopaedic specialisms are meeting the needs of patients.

Question reference: S4W-26995

Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 16 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many salmon anglers have killed on rivers in each year since 2010.

Question reference: S4W-27334

Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 15 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what best practice was taken forward following the summit that it convened on urban seagulls in 2008.

The Urban Gull Task Force, which was set up after the summit in 2008 has recommended various measures to help minimise the problems caused by urban gulls including: the removal, where necessary, of eggs and nests under Scottish Natural Heritage General Licence 03/2015; dissuading people from feeding urban gulls, including widespread use of notices, educational talks at schools; modifying bins and street furniture to deter gull activity; and encouraging occupiers of premises not to leave bin bags on the streets. The use of falcons is also discussed in the Dumfries Gull Report – Use of Falcons to Displace Nesting Gulls from an Urban Area which was a report commissioned by the Scottish Government and was published on 14 April 2010. The report is available at:

http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2010/04/14160323/0

Year	Number
2010	32,866
2011	24,332
2012	22,683
2013	13,559
2014	8,036