Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government supports new woodland creation through the Forestry Grant Scheme. Forestry Grant Scheme grant recipients are responsible for the maintenance of their new woodland planting and recipients of funding agree to maintain their new woodland creation projects for a period of 20 years.

On the rare occasion a project fails to establish, grant recipients must repay the funds that were provided to create the new woodland.

If a land sale transfers ownership of a new woodland creation project that was supported by the Forestry Grant Scheme, the liability for grant repayment rests with the original grant recipient, unless the obligations are formally transferred to a new owner. This new owner would enter into their own grant contract with Scottish Forestry to maintain the newly created woodland through to establishment.

Scottish Forestry are in discussion with the new owners of the Lost Forest project at Kinrara Estate, and they are working through the process of transferring the grant obligations to the new owner. Once this transfer is agreed, the new owners will assume liability for any potential repayment of grants should the project fail to meet the Forestry Grant Scheme requirements. If no such transfer occurs, this responsibility will remain with the original grant recipient.

The Scottish Public Service Ombudsman (SPSO) has a statutory function in relation to complaints handling for most public bodies. If children and/or their representatives are not content with the way a public service within SPSO’s jurisdiction has dealt with their complaint they can escalate it to SPSO. When required to investigate complaints, SPSO highlight mistakes and failures in the complaints handling process and make recommendations to remedy those. SPSO also have legal powers to make a declaration of non-compliance if the public authority has failed to ensure their procedures are consistent with a model complaints handling process.

With extra funding from the Scottish Government, SPSO have created child friendly complaints handling principles and child friendly complaints handling process guidance to help public bodies under their jurisdiction to implement a model complaints handling procedure in a way that upholds children’s rights under the UNCRC.

The Scottish Government is also working with external stakeholders to co-develop data collection to help understand children and young people’s experiences of raising an individual rights issue to identify if and where children and young people encounter barriers and gaps in support, information, and services that they need to claim their rights.

We strongly oppose the introduction of any mandatory digital ID scheme by the UK Government.

The mandatory nature of the UK Government proposal raises multiple human rights concerns and may disproportionately impact the most vulnerable in our society. The Scottish Government believes that people should not be asked to prove who they are unless it is necessary.

When announced, the UK Government said that they will listen to a range of views on how the scheme will be delivered. We are actively working with them to fully understand the proposal and seek further information on the planned consultation, and areas which will impact the people of Scotland.

The Scottish Government engage regularly with Glasgow City Council regarding plans for the upcoming Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games. Any decision regarding the timeline for the refurbishment of George Square is a matter for the Council.

Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) has evolved its current deer management model, that has increased the annual cull by 35% since 2015/16. This model—delivered through a combination of Wildlife Rangers, professional contractors, and recreational stalkers—has proven more effective in reducing deer impacts on Scotland’s national forests and land (SNFL), while supporting broader land management goals and protecting public investment.

Sporting leases, often lacked the flexibility and responsiveness needed to manage deer populations effectively, the current model allows year-round culling across varied terrain using specialist equipment. Professional Rangers and contractors ensure a targeted and efficient approach.

Additionally, increasing sporting leases would significantly raise the cost of sporting rates payable by FLS to local authorities along with the increased administrative burden, especially compared to more direct delivery models.

The Scottish Government’s long-term vision, as set out in the Active Travel Framework, is that by 2030 Scotland’s communities will be shaped around people and place, enabling walking, wheeling, and cycling to be the most popular modes of travel for short, everyday journeys.

The Scottish Government is keen to learn, along with others, about the impact of wildfires to develop a better understanding of fire risks and fire resilient landscapes.

NatureScot will be reporting and monitoring the impact of the fire, which affected a relatively small area, on the Muir of Dinnet National Nature Reserve. They will also look into assessing the impact on Culbean Hill Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSI) and learning about the impact on the other SSSIs.

Through the Aquaculture and Fisheries (Scotland) Act (AFSA) 2007, the Scottish Government requires satisfactory measures to be in place at fish farm sites for the purposes of the containment of fish and the prevention of escape of fish. Where satisfactory measures are found not to be in place, Scottish Ministers may serve an enforcement notice. Fish farm operators are required to report the details of any circumstances which caused or might have caused an escape of fish from a fish farm site. In this case, the site operator has followed reporting protocols and reported the incident to the Fish Health Inspectorate (FHI). The FHI has attended the site and is conducting an escape investigation and enhanced containment inspection. In addition, the details of this incident will be published on Scotland’s Aquaculture website. Any escape of farmed fish is regrettable and we expect all farmers to minimise the risk of escapes.

We will continue to work with the sector to reduce the risk of escapes, supported by existing legislation and the FHI’s associated inspection regime. The Scottish Government supports innovation in the sector, including where it helps to reduce the risk of fish escaping from fish farms.

It is not possible to provide such information because in line with usual practice, details of individual tasks carried out by civil servants, including the number of hours spent on them are not routinely recorded as there is no business need to do this. Civil servants across a range of different business areas contributed to this publication as part of their normal duties supporting the Scottish Government.

As per Historic Environments Scotland’s (HES) established annual approach, a number of sites across the HES estate are currently closed for the winter season, or will close in November, in line with sector best practice. Further information on closures can be found at https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/check-for-closures/.

As indicated in my earlier reply day-to-day operational matters of Historic Environment Scotland, including information relating to any repair and maintenance works of any specific site, are best answered directly by Historic Environment Scotland.