Chamber and committees

The information requested is not collected or held centrally by the Scottish Government and would require to be obtained from Health Boards.

The Scottish Government is engaging with farming interests on this topic though dialogue with NFUS and more widely through the Trees on Farms stakeholder group.

We also carefully monitor tree planting funded through the Forestry Grant Scheme and this shows that overall, planting has been delivered in-line with the current Woodland Expansion Advisory Group guidance on planting on agricultural land.

Since 2008, the combined area of woodland creation on prime and non-prime agricultural land (LCAs 2.1-4.2) totals less 1% of the area of these land classes.

We are also improving support and awareness of ways to establish more trees in ways that benefit farmers. This includes working through the Integrating Trees Network to promote the opportunities and help farmers and crofters get the benefits of growing trees supporting their farming business.

There are a range of funding sources available to land managers to control invasive non-native species. These include the Agri-environment and Climate Scheme (AECS) and the Forestry Grant Scheme (FGS) under the Scottish Rural Development Programme. To date, more than £3.6m of FGS funding over the past eight years has been committed for rhododendron control projects.

There are also a number of projects that are tackling invasive plants and animals across Scotland, such as the Scottish Invasive Species Initiative and the Tweed Invasives project set up by the Tweed Forum.

In September 2021, at COP26, Scottish Ministers announced that the Nature Restoration Fund would provide £65 million for projects that benefit nature to be funded through this Parliamentary session. Habitat and species restoration which include the eradication of invasive non-native species are among the types of projects that can apply for grants funding, including for projects lasting up to three years.

Responsibility for invasive non-native plants rests with landowners and occupiers. Under common law, there is an expectation that land owners should take reasonable steps to prevent invasive non-native plants growing on their land from causing a nuisance or injury to others. However, it is not a criminal offence for an owner or occupier to have invasive non-native plants growing on their land.

NatureScot can make species control agreements (SCA) and species control orders (SCO) to require control of invasive non-native species. This discretionary power is aimed primarily at preventing high impact invasive non-native species becoming established in and spreading within Scotland. For species that are already widespread, such as giant hogweed, NatureScot can offer species control agreements to support coordinated control programmes, where inaction on a particular land holding is jeopardising the success of the programme.

It is an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to fail to comply with an SCO.

NatureScot is the lead organisation for non-native species on land including wetlands and riparian zones. They lead on riverbank vegetation and all land animals (vertebrates and invertebrates). Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) take the lead in the freshwater environment (still and flowing). Scottish Forestry and Forestry and Land Scotland take the lead on woodland and other habitats on the national forest estate. In many cases, fisheries trusts have taken the lead on co-ordinated action on riverine INNS such as giant hogweed.

There are no plans for setting geographic limits on the concentration of wind farms. The Revised Draft National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) was laid in the Scottish Parliament on 8 November 2022 and is the product of extensive engagement and collaboration.

NPF4 will be a significant step forward towards achieving a net zero Scotland. The revised energy policy supports renewable energy projects in principle, setting out that the only areas where wind energy is not supported are in National Parks and National Scenic Areas. Each individual development proposal will be subject to an assessment of its impacts on a case by case basis. Criteria for assessing proposals are included in policy and the impacts on communities, nature and other receptors remain important considerations in the decision-making process.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government as this is an operational matter for the independent Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and Scottish Water. I have therefore asked SEPA’s and Scottish Water’s Chief Executives to write to the Member to provide details.

The mental health and wellbeing of children and young people is an absolute priority for the Scottish Government. We are committed to improving support for children and young people’s mental health in order to ensure early intervention and prevention of suicide.

Health and wellbeing is a core part of Curriculum for Excellence, and schools play a vital role in supporting pupils’ mental health. The Mental Health in Schools Working Group, on behalf of Ministers, produced a framework to support local authorities and schools embed support for children and young people's mental health and wellbeing across all aspects of the school environment. The group has also developed professional learning for school staff, which includes suicide awareness.

We continue to support local authorities with £16 million in funding to ensure that every secondary school has access to counselling services.

The Scottish Government and COSLA published a new Suicide Prevention Strategy and Action Plan in September 2022. These include plans to further develop existing and new resources for schools which build understanding on mental health, self-harm and suicide prevention.

There are 3652 waterbodies in total in Scotland, as defined by SEPA in the third River Basin Management Plan. A waterbody can relate to whole or parts of rivers, canals, lochs, estuaries, ground or coastal waters of a particular size as defined by the Water Framework Directive (WFD).

The Scottish monitoring network was designed within the framework of the WFD with EU monitoring guidance and principles laid down by the UK Technical Advisory Group (UKTAG). In order to monitor and report classification efficiently SEPA utilises modelling and risk assessment to group some surface waters and groundwaters, taking account of factors such as size, altitude and the challenges they face. One waterbody from that group is then monitored, and the classification produced is used for the other waterbodies in the group. This means over 1/3 of the total number of waterbodies have been regularly monitored for water quality.

Approximately 1/10 of all waterbodies are included in SEPA’s long term surveillance monitoring programme, which provides a representative overview of the overall state of the water environment. This is supplemented by additional targeted monitoring at higher risk sites, covering approximately 1/5 of all water bodies.

The frequency of water quality monitoring varies depending on the level of environmental risk, to ensure that resources are targeted at areas where evidence is most needed. Annual assessments at most of the monitored water bodies involves monitoring between 1 and 12 times in the year. The remainder of the water bodies are assessed on every two to six years.

SEPA has also adopted a risk-based approach to the monitoring of Water Framework Directive priority substances. This means that the extent and type of monitoring is targeted to the relevant substance in question. This monitoring is targeted at relevant sectors, where emissions of these substances to the environment occur and is focused on small numbers of waterbodies linked with the locations of these sectors. River Basin Management Planning classification is published annually and includes an assessment of priority substances, which are in general monitored on a quarterly to monthly frequency over the year.

The Scottish Government continues to work with the sector, stakeholders and the scientific community to explore practical ways to address interactions between salmon and seals in rivers.

In spring 2021 Scottish Government in partnership with Crown Estate Scotland published a report which reviewed measures that have been adopted globally and which could assist in developing non-lethal strategies to address seal predation on salmonids in Scottish rivers, as well as setting out a number of assessments and recommendations for use of, or further development of, specific measures - Review of non-lethal seal control options to limit seal predation on salmonids in rivers and at finfish farms | Marine Scotland Data Publications .

Building on the recommendations of the report, the Scottish Government continues to support practical work to investigate and develop non-lethal deterrent tools for use by wild salmonid fisheries. This is an ongoing work programme and, progress reports can be found on the Sea Mammal Research Unit’s Marine Mammal Scientific Support to Scottish Government | SMRU (st-andrews.ac.uk) .