Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government regularly engages with the rail trade unions who have long campaigned for this Pilot and their members are key to the successful implementation of it to date.

The Natural Capital Market Framework will seek to strengthen Scotland’s interim principles for ‘Responsible Investment in Natural Capital’. If passed by Scottish Parliament, the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill will also help to realise many of these Interim Principles, especially those relevant to land use, community engagement and community benefit.

For example, the Bill includes provisions that would place legal responsibilities on the owners of large landholdings to set out how they use their land and how that contributes to key public policy priorities, like addressing climate change and protecting and restoring nature. The Bill will also ensure the owners of large landholdings will have to engage with local communities about how they use the land, and it will prohibit certain sales of over 1000 hectares, until Ministers can consider the impact on the local community.

As announced by the First Minister in May, the Pilot was extended for a further three months until 27 September 2024. This was based on the existing data available and allows for a longer evaluation period to gather additional data on the pilot’s effectiveness at encouraging modal shift from car to rail while helping passengers facing cost of living pressures.

The Scottish Government is developing a Market Framework to set out a clear long-term policy ambition and coherent policy framework to support our vision for the development of Natural Capital markets in Scotland. It will be published later in the year, following the current extended engagement phase with a wide variety of stakeholders.

Prior to the development of the technical specification for the overall wildfire project, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) set up a User Intelligence Group (UIG) comprising uniformed wildfire subject matter experts, with relevant union and health and safety representation. The UIG was guided by procurement and fleet technical experts. In line with European procurement law the technical specification was put to the European market further to final amendments made to it by the UIG.

The tender returns were evaluated by the UIG and awarded on the technical aspects of the end user specification and support packages. It should be noted that two representative bodies, the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) and the Fire and Rescue Services Association (FRSA) were part of the UIG for the wildfire vehicles. SFRS has been made aware of concerns raised by the FRSA regarding the all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) and has engaged extensively with that group. The FBU, SFRS and wildfire experts do not share the views of the FRSA.

The ATVs are general purpose vehicles and SFRS currently has four in operation. The Service’s newest Angloco models were purchased as part of its wildfire strategy and will be introduced in conjunction with a fleet of other 4x4 vehicles, which arrived earlier this year. The 4x4 vehicles are for transportation of ATVs and once on scene will be used to convey personnel around an incident ground. Firefighter safety is paramount and all new vehicles and equipment will only be rolled out once staff are trained to operate them within safe parameters.

I refer the member to the answer to questions S6W-27104 on 10 May 2024 and S6W-26870 on 25 April 2024. 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 .

Discussions regarding the charter, and terms of the contract were solely between the owner of the vessel, Pentland Ferries, and the operator CalMac Ferries Limited.

The procedures surrounding Redetermination Orders are contained within the relevant legislation (The Stopping Up of Roads and Private Accesses and the Redetermination of Public Rights of Passage (Procedure)(Scotland) Regulations 1986.

Transport Scotland undertook a review of the Traffic Regulation Orders (TRO) process, which included Redetermination Orders, in 2021. Stakeholders consulted during this review included local authorities. As part of the findings of this review Transport Scotland has highlighted that Redetermination Orders are not needed in all circumstances.

For example, if a local authority has made a TRO which effectively determines the means by which the public can exercise their right of passage over the road then it may not be necessary to also have a Redetermination Order to give effect to the restrictions on traffic. However, the decision on whether a Redetermination Order is required for a project ultimately remains with the relevant Roads Authority.

Since 2020 Transport Scotland has received 7 Redetermination Orders for determination where objections have been maintained. 6 of these have received a Ministerial Decision within an average of 4 months without referral to a Public Local Inquiry. One other is under active consideration having been received on the 4 th June 2024.

The Scottish Government has not held discussions with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) regarding maritime safety compliance in respect of the MV Alfred. The MCA are responsible for the inspection and surveying of ships to ensure that they are meeting UK and international safety rules.

The Scottish Government expects the highest shipping safety and crew welfare standards and for these to be applied in the case of all vessels and personnel accessing our ports and coastal areas.

Forestry and Land Scotland reduce impacts on red squirrel by scheduling operations to avoid the breeding season in areas that are thought to hold higher than average densities of red squirrels. Prior to any harvesting operation, a pre-operational survey is carried out to assess the extent of use of the felling coupe by red squirrels, and to locate squirrel dreys.

If red squirrels are identified as being present, various mitigation may be enacted, such as retaining drey trees, avoiding areas with dreys until after the breeding season, and directional felling to slowly usher adults and kits into adjacent stands. During operations machine operators are required to report any dreys felled with kits in them. No such reports have been made in 2024 or 2023 seasons.

It is impossible to know with certainty whether in fact any kits are killed each year , for example if unobserved dreys are felled, which are consequently unreported by machine operators. FLS have therefore calculated a hypothetical maximum assuming worst case scenarios in all assumptions. Based on the current felling and harvesting programme, the potential numbers for a) 2024 and b) 2025, is:

a) 903 (or 1.2% of the estimated population of kits in Scotland)

b) 876 (or 1.17% of the estimated population of kits in Scotland)

This will change as the programme is adjusted and finalised.

Only a small proportion of the theoretical deaths of squirrel kits due to forest operations would be extra mortality, as over 70% of young kits naturally die during their first winter.