Chamber and committees

The Endometriosis Referral Care Pathway for Scotland was published by the Centre for Sustainable Delivery in January 2023 and distributed to NHS Scotland Boards.

I refer the member to the answer to S6W-22110 on 30 October 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

The Scottish Government is working to take forward the action in the Women’s Health Plan that seek to enable all patients to access mid-trimester abortion care locally or regionally. Progress has been made, with all mainland NHS Boards now offering services up to at least 20 weeks’ gestation as recommended by the 2022 Healthcare Improvement Scotland Sexual Health Standards.

The Scottish Government commissioned NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) to develop a specification to deliver a national service for abortions between 20 to 24 weeks gestation within Scotland. NSS has been discussing its specification with NHS Boards and is also exploring other delivery options for the service.

We are also working with individual NHS Boards to support clinicians who wish to receive training to deliver later stage abortions to be granted funding to do so, and to encourage NHS Boards to ensure that patients close to 20 weeks’ gestation are prioritised for appointments.

The Forestry Grant Scheme opened for applications in 2015 as part of the Scottish Rural Development Programme (SRDP) and initially had a 7 year budget of £36m per year. The Forestry Grants budget has since been reviewed on an annual basis, as part of the wider Scottish Government Budget process, to reflect the Climate Change Plan woodland creation target and on-going legal commitments.

Forestry Grant Scheme contracts are issued by Scottish Forestry, and underspends can occur where insufficient applications are received or approved schemes are delayed. Underspends occurred in 2015-16 and 2016-17 due to insufficient applications being received in the first two years of FGS. Since then underspends have occurred in 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23, due to combination insufficient applications and delays with approved projects being implemented.

The Scottish Government does not have a formal definition for a “cluster” of farmers. The term has been used in relation to the Farming with Nature programme NatureScot delivers in partnership with the Scottish Government, specifically the Piloting an Outcomes Based Approach in Scotland (POBAS) project. The term ‘cluster’ has been used where there are a number of farms and crofts in a region participating or involved with the project. Further information on the project’s Phase 1 and Phases 2 and 3 is available on NatureScot’s website.

The current Action Plan ends in December 2023. Future plans will be informed by the review mentioned in my answer to question S6W-22193 on 26 October 2023. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Draft Scottish Biodiversity Strategy includes commitments to continue effective species recovery, reintroduction and reinforcement programmes and to introduce an agricultural future support framework which delivers for nature restoration and biodiversity.

The Scottish Government and NatureScot have agreed to undertake a review of the Sea Eagle Management Scheme and White-tailed Eagle Action Plan. Terms of reference for this work have been drafted and will be shared with the Sea Eagle National Stakeholder Panel shortly.

The review will assess progress on delivering the aims of the Sea Eagle Management Scheme to support farmers and crofters to manage their livestock alongside a growing sea eagle population.

NatureScot, through the Sea Eagle Management Scheme, delivers a range of measures to support farmers and crofters to manage sheep flocks to mitigate the impacts of sea eagle predation.

These include:

• Provision of one-to-one advice from experienced contractors to land managers experiencing sea eagle impacts
• Co-ordination of recording/logging of sea eagle activity and flock management information at a farm/croft level
• Loan of scaring equipment
• Payments to land managers who undertake management measures which mitigate sea eagle impacts as part of their livestock management, through Management Agreements.

Payments can be made for flock management (including supplementary feeding, tick and fluke treatments), enhanced management (including additional shepherding and away wintering of sheep) and capital measures (including purchase of scaring devices, creation of hill parks and support for indoor lambing).

More details are available on the NatureScot website at https://www.nature.scot/professional-advice/land-and-sea-management/managing-wildlife/sea-eagle-management-scheme

Scottish Government Rural Payment and Inspectorate Division staff and NatureScot staff are part of the National Sea Eagle Stakeholder Panel. The panel is represented by a range of interests including a number of farming and crofting organisations

Alongside representation on the National Sea Eagle Stakeholder Panel, NatureScot run the Sea Eagle Management Scheme, which currently has over 190 participants. Engagement is directly with the participants and ranges from site visits and advice from NatureScot contractors, scheme payments, developing management and mitigation measures and carrying out site based work to improve our understanding of sea eagle interactions with sheep.