Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government operates a robust and fair planning system. Scottish Planning policy is clear that development plans prepared by planning authorities should identify those areas that are likely to be most appropriate for onshore wind farms, as a guide for developers and communities. It is also clear that development plans should set out the criteria that will be considered in deciding applications for wind farms and that there should not be moratoria on onshore wind development. Each wind farm presented to the planning system is, by law, considered in accordance with the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise. When considering applications for wind farm developments, Scottish Ministers are required to take into account information regarding the likely significant effects of a proposed development, such as, the cumulation of effects with other existing and/or approved developments.

The Scottish Government's Energy Consents Unit is responsible for the consideration of applications for large-scale generating stations over 50MW. Any applications for less than 50MW would be considered under the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 by the relevant planning authority. As such, the Scottish Government does not hold aggregated information on wind turbine consents. However, we have included a breakdown of section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989 determinations by planning authority:

Onshore wind is the lowest cost electricity generation at scale and remains vitally important to our decarbonisation ambitions. Paragraph 166 of Scottish Planning Policy states that proposals for onshore wind turbine developments should continue to be determined while spatial frameworks and local policies are being prepared and updated.

Tariff policy is reserved to the UK Government. However, tariff-free trade with Europe, the elimination of non-tariff barriers and quick and efficient customs procedures are indispensable to the functioning of Scotland’s energy system and its supply chains. Any tariff barriers arising from hurried, sub-optimal trade deals negotiated by the UK Government could increase the administrative and compliance costs of the energy sector exporting to, or importing from, the European Single Market.

The Scottish Government embraces the values of solidarity, cooperation and democracy which underpin the European Union, and we believe they are critically important for the great global challenge of our time – tackling climate change. The EU’s international and growing influence in driving climate ambition means that Scotland’s best interest lies in negotiating as close a relationship as possible with the EU, and to do that before any other nation or trading bloc. This does not, however, preclude the use of trade as a policy lever to drive climate change ambition and action with other partners, including high-emitting countries; our first preference, however, would be to use trade to open up new markets for Scottish low carbon goods and services, helping trade partners to decarbonise their economies.

The UK Government recently published its objectives for a free trade agreement with the USA. It is unacceptable that the UK Government is seeking to compound the harm of leaving the EU by signing up to a US trade deal that will increase emissions. Any trade displacement from the EU to more distant partners will inevitably raise emissions and make our respective net zero targets more difficult to achieve.

The use of vaccines for prevention of diseases in livestock should only be carried out under the supervision of a veterinary surgeon and the costs of vaccines are carried by livestock keepers. Published literature on this topic is available, however disease control at a national level presents a more complicated picture.

Vaccines are one of a number of preventative tools that can be used to protect livestock, these include safe sourcing of new stock, isolation and disease testing after purchase and swift treatment and removal if necessary of any affected stock. A combination of methods, tailored to suit circumstances on each farm is most likely to optimise the outcomes for livestock health.

This ‘mixed economy’ approach has been successful in the SG supported bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) eradication scheme which has used safe sourcing, movement controls and diagnosis alongside vaccination; a recent analysis has shown benefits on from controlling BVD to be between £2,000 and £14,000 per year for the average farm.

Efficient agricultural production is an important component of the Scottish Government’s plan to tackle the climate emergency. Improving animal health is one aspect of livestock production efficiency alongside optimising feed and management systems, breeding animals for optimal feed conversion and to suit the farm environment, and sharing information and data through the supply chain. The Scottish Government are piloting bovine EID which has the potential to assist in the transfer of high quality data through the supply chain, for example from abattoirs and markets back to breeders and finishers.

High animal health standards are an important aspect of producing quality Scottish products. This supports the delivery of the ambition for Scotland to be a Good Food Nation where people from every walk of life take pride and pleasure in, and benefit from, the food they produce, buy, cook, serve and eat each day. We are well on our way to becoming a Good Food Nation and work is now underway to draft the Good Food Nation Bill. We plan to publish it as part of the legislative programme set out for this parliamentary year.

Scotland’s high animal health standards are not impacted by the Agriculture (Retained EU Law and Data) (Scotland) Bill. The Bill does not make any changes to the common agricultural policy as it applies in Scotland, but it will support the continued operation of current CAP schemes and policies for a transition period up to around 2024, by for example enabling their simplification and improvement during that period.

Scottish Government has supported 2 formal assessments of the impact of diseases on livestock production, one conducted by ADAS and a second by the SG funded Centre of Expertise on Climate Change.

The Scottish Government has a history of supporting R&D and control schemes for non-statutory endemic diseases. For example we previously used CAP funding to support animal health planning and options for disease control. We have also been at the forefront of effort to control bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) in the UK by supporting the industry through development of the ScotEID database and delivery of BVD legislation.

SG funded research programmes at the Moredun Research Institute and Scotland’s Rural College are internationally renowned and have delivered new disease control tools such as diagnostic methods. The rational for support of this research includes minimising environmental impact through improved animal health.

The Scottish Government is giving careful consideration to the recommendations in the Independent Review of Grouse Moor Management report and we will publish our response later this year. Our response will cover the key recommendation on the licensing of grouse moor businesses, including the question of timescale. It will take account of all relevant evidence, including that heard by the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee on 21 January 2020.

The First Minister set out on 19 December 2019 that if a decision is taken to move to the licensing of grouse moor businesses, it is likely to be earlier than the five-year timeframe suggested by the review group.

As stated in the response to S5W-27409 on 9 March 2020, when we are preparing our response to the Independent Review of Grouse Moor Management report we will take account of all relevant evidence, including that heard by the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee on 21 January 2020.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx