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: S4O-02709

Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 December 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 December 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what records are kept of obstruction by landowners to right of access by walkers, wheelchair users, cyclists and horse riders.

Question reference: S4F-01736

Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 December 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 December 2013

To ask the First Minister which powers over land ownership could be devolved to the Scottish Parliament to strengthen Scottish land reform.

Question reference: S4O-02658

Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 November 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 December 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what form the scheduled review of the Wildlife and Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2011 will take in relation to deer management.

Question reference: S4O-02592

Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 November 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether colleges offer courses in gamekeeping and countryside management that meet the demand for jobs across the sector.

Question reference: S4W-17530

Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 25 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what powers it has to restrict overtaking by heavy goods vehicles in the overtaking sections of the A9.

Question reference: S4W-17132

Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 2 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many deer have been culled in each of the last 10 years, broken down by species, and what Scottish Natural Heritage's estimate is of the current population of each species.

Deer cull figures are provided in the following table. The cull returns reported here are from approximately 3,000 landholdings from which the Deer Commission for Scotland (DCS) and Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) have sought statutory annual returns. These are principally upland properties within deer management group structures, woodland properties, and properties where SNH issue authorisation for out of season or night shooting control. It is recognised that this will not capture all deer shot in Scotland.

Year	Red Cull	Roe Cull	Sika Cull	Fallow Cull	Total Cull	Reported Mortality (3)	Total Cull plus Mortality
2003-04 (1)	61,957	32,913	3,900	1,645	100,415	N/A	N/A
2004-05 (1)	68,685	31,781	4,735	1,352	106,553	N/A	N/A
2005-06 (2)	63,611	33,597	8,110	1,634	106,952	N/A	N/A
2006-07 (2)	62,563	31,808	5,923	1,398	101,692	N/A	N/A
2007-08 (2)	61,354	32,058	5,167	1,818	100,397	N/A	N/A
2008-09 (2)	58,496	32,026	5,465	2,306	98,293	N/A	N/A
2009-10 (2)	58,185	28,076	3,733	1,828	91,822	13,074	104,896
2010-11 (2)	56,275	31,291	6,528	1,923	96,017	4,395	100,412
2011-12 (2)	52,902	32,097	6,141	1,863	93,003	2,199	95,202
2012-13 (2) (4)	56,779	33,175	5,977	1,696	97,627	1,935	99,562

Notes:

1. Source – DCS Annual Report.

2. Source – Deerline.

3. Following the severe weather of 2009-10 DCS starting requesting deer mortality in annual returns.

4. Cull returns from 200 properties in 2012-13 are still outstanding.

Scotland has significant populations of red deer (Cervus elaphus), roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and sika (Cervus nippon) as well as more localised populations of fallow (Dama dama). The most recent population estimates (5) suggest overall numbers at between 360,000-400,000 red deer, 200,000-350,000 roe deer, 25,000 sika deer and an estimated 2,000 fallow deer.

There are significant difficulties in counting deer and large margins of error must be taken into account. This is particularly difficult in a woodland environment.

(5) Sources:

Ward, A.I. 2007. Trends in deer distribution and abundance within the UK. Presentation to "Deer, Habitats and Impacts".

Putman, R.J. 2010. Ungulates and their management in Great Britain and Ireland. In:European Ungulates and their Management in the 21st century.

SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT

Question reference: S4W-17129

Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 26 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the cost of negotiating and implementing voluntary control agreements in each year since 1993.

The costs to Deer Commission Scotland (DCS) and Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) of implementing Section 7 agreements since 2006 are shown in the following table. Data for 2003-05 could only be recovered at disproportionate cost.

The financial costs incurred by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), and previously the Deer Commission for Scotland (DCS), in implementing Section 7 control agreements have been broken down into four elements. These are:

assessing habitats to determine extent of impact by deer within proposed control agreement area; assessing deer populations over defined areas of control;

DCS/SNH staff time in negotiating and administering the control agreement; and

direct culling support by DCS/SNH through Section 10 or Section 12 of the Deer (Scotland) Act 1996.

	Habitat Assessment Costs (£)	Deer Census (£)	Direct Assistance (£)
Staff Costs (£)	Total (£)
2006	18,000	33,000	160,000 (1)	104,459	315,459
2007	71,030	35,800		104,459	211,289
2008	126,725	78,944		104,459	310,128
2009	74,000	76,000		104,459	254,459
2010	25,500	76,000		104,459	205,959
2011	39,483	34,327		97,770	171,580
2012	69,088	64,393		97,770	231,251
2013	45,115	32,439		97,770	175,324 (2)

(1) Assistance provided by DCS in 2005-06 and 2006-07 to estates in the Caenlochan area to reduce deer numbers in order to prevent damage to designated habitats.

(2) Projected expenditure.

Question reference: S4W-17135

Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 26 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what income has been derived by Forestry Commission Scotland from (a) deer carcases and (b) stalking lets in each of the last 10 years.

The income derived by Forestry Commission Scotland from its deer management activities during the 10 year period 2003-04 to 2012-13 is shown in the following table. The income breakdown by carcasses or stalking lets is not available from 1 April 2008 due to change in the Forestry Commission Scotland accounts structure:

Year	Deer Carcasses (Venison Income) (a)	Stalking, Leases and Permissions Income (b)	Total Income
	£ million	£ million	£ million
2003-04	0.5	0.3	0.8
2004-05	0.4	0.3	0.7
2005-06	0.5	0.3	0.8
2006-07	0.5	0.3	0.8
2007-08	0.5	0.3	0.8
2008-09			1.1
2009-10			1.3
2010-11			1.5
2011-12			1.4
2012-13			1.8

Question reference: S4W-17134

Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 26 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what the gross cost has been to Forestry Commission Scotland of deer culling in each of the last 10 years.

The estimated gross cost of culling deer on the National Forest Estate from 2003-04 to 2012-13 is shown in the following table. The figures include all deer management costs, other than deer fence costs. The culling costs include the deer shooting activity itself, salaries, the cost of equipment, the supporting infrastructure, such as deer larders and access tracks, deer surveys and contributions to partnership work with the deer and venison industries.

Year	Estimated Gross Cost of Culling
	£ million
2003-04	5.6
2004-05	5.4
2005-06	5.2
2006-07	5.1
2007-08	5.1
2008-09	4.7
2009-10	4.8
2010-11	5.7
2011-12	5.5
2012-13	5.6

Question reference: S4W-17131

Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 26 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what the percentage participation is of eligible proprietors in each deer management group.