Chamber and committees

The vast majority of dog owners are responsible people who take good care of their animals and enjoy the widespread benefits of dog ownership and companionship.

Where a dog owner is issued with a dog control notice (DCN) under the terms of the Control of Dogs (Scotland) Act 2010 ("the 2010 Act"), conditions are included with the DCN. While a matter for local authorities, the 2010 Act recognises that training for dogs and owners is important and as such includes a requirement to attend and complete a course of training in the control of dogs as a suggested condition that can be included in a DCN. This proportionate approach focuses on those owners who have allowed their dogs to be out of control.

More generally, the Scottish Government previously carried out a digital marketing campaign on dog control with the Scottish SPCA. This campaign has been re-run on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram on a number of occasions, and directs the public to information about ‘The law on controlling your dog’ on the mygov.scot website at: https://www.mygov.scot/controlling-your-dog

This website makes clear that dog owners are responsible for the actions of their dog, and also provides links to websites for organisations such as the Scottish SPCA that contain advice and assistance on issues such as dog training.

The Scottish Government would encourage all dog owners to seek advice and assistance from reputable organisations such as the Scottish SPCA and the Dogs Trust if they require assistance with their dog/dog training.

The Scottish Government is also embarking of a number of regional engagements to help consider what more can be done by enforcers and other key stakeholders to collectively consider what else can be achieved to strengthen enforcement and help prevent and reduce the risk of dog incidents.

Further to the information provided in S6W-21589 on 5 October 2023, the Scottish Government continues to regularly assess the management information provided by health boards to Public Health Scotland that provides information on dog bites.

The Scottish Government is committed to working with justice agencies and local authorities, and other key stakeholders, to keep communities and people safe from irresponsible dog owners and out of control dogs. A series of Scottish Government engagement events is underway with key enforcement interests in different parts of Scotland to assess how best legislation can be used to help address dog control issues.

A Scottish Government led Short Life Working Group has undertaken a review of the Dangerous Dog Act 1991, with a wide range of views offered. The Scottish Government will use this review to help determine what may be appropriate as next steps. Education is a is key factor in prevention of livestock worrying incidents. Messaging is promoted widely on social media by NatureScot and The Scottish Outdoor Access Code also sets out how to exercise access rights responsibly when walking dogs: https://www.outdooraccess-scotland.scot/practical-guide-all/dog-walking

To assist with addressing the issue of dog attacks on animals the Scottish Government supported the introduction of the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill, which gained Royal Assent on 5 May 2021 and came into force on 5 November 2021, as being in accordance with the advice on responsible behaviour for people walking dogs contained in the Scottish Outdoor Access Code.

Under this law owners of dogs that attack or worry livestock can be fined up to £40,000 or face a prison sentence of up to 12 months.

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 TSE (Scotland) Regulations 2010 and the Retained (EC) 999/2001 Regulations place a number of requirements on Food Business Operators (FBOs), mainly related to animal identification and animal-by-products, particularly the removal of Specified Risk Material (SRM) before official post-mortem inspection and its adequate identification, segregation and disposal. However, when FSS officials identify SRM at post-mortem inspection, the FBO will be given an opportunity to rectify the meat and remove the SRM before it is reinspected, to prevent it being placed into the food chain. These lapses are classed as non-compliances and enforcement action is recorded in all cases.

Food Standards Scotland (FSS) is the Competent Authority for all Scottish slaughterhouses. Local Authorities do not have any TSE controls remit in these establishments which is why non-compliances are not reported by local authority area.

FSS is able to report on non-compliances since August 2020 during which time we have recorded a total of 6,246 non-compliances across all FSS approved Scottish Meat Establishments, 87 of which refer to breaches of the TSE (Scotland) Regulations 2010 or the equivalent Retained (EC) 999/2001 Regulations.

FSS is unable to extract non-compliances between 2010 and 2020, partially due to retention policies in place (for enforcement data older than 6 years) and partially linked to the way in which we record information prior to 2020 (which was a basic word document). Since 2020 we have changed our system to enable us to have more precise information.

The budgets allocated are as follows:

Nature Scot are in regular communication with project partners Palladium, Lombard Odier and Hampden & Co who all remain actively involved in and committed to the pilot.

Since being established in the winter of 2020 as part of the wider Winter Support Fund, the Scottish Government has made available a total of £48.47 million to date, to our third sector partners to deliver the Fuel Insecurity Fund. We have agreed a flexible approach to the delivery of support which ensures the Fund can be distributed quickly to those households who are at risk of self-rationing or self-disconnecting their energy use.

The Scottish Government does not hold the breakdown by local authority area, of individual fuel vouchers or household support payments made through our partners.

Our Fund partners work with their network of Scotland-wide referral partners to carefully assess eligible households for crisis support based on their individual circumstances and actual need.

The Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) supports communities across Scotland to participate in, and benefit from, the energy transition. CARES has advised over 1,000 organisations, offered funding of over £61 million to over 800 projects, and helped support the installation of 58.6 MW of renewable energy.

311 organisations are currently progressing live projects through CARES. A breakdown by local authority area is provided in the following table.

These figures relate to the date when CARES funding was offered, and so do not necessarily correlate to when the funding is drawn down or spent by organisations.

There is an estimated 908 MW of community and locally owned renewable energy capacity operational in Scotland, as of the most recent annual update in December 2022. This represents 45% of our target of 2 GW capacity of community and locally owned renewable energy by 2030.

In the Onshore Wind Sector Deal, the Scottish Government and onshore wind sector have jointly committed to develop approaches to support and encourage community shared ownership models, and will publish a framework on this by the end of 2024.

It is for individual organisations to create their own policies in accordance with the Equality Act 2010. The Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill does not modify the Equality Act 2010. The Scottish Parliament’s power to legislate on equality is limited as equal opportunities are reserved to the Westminster Government. Responsibility for oversight of compliance with the 2010 Act rests with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) which has issued guidance on how the Regulations should be applied in practice. The Scottish Government expects all relevant organisations to comply with the requirements of the 2010 Act and with the relevant codes of practice and other guidance published by the EHRC.

Glasgow City Council were awarded funding from the low carbon Vacant and Derelict Land Investment Programme (VDLIP) to support its project at Govan Graving Docks in February 2023.

The low carbon VDLIP is a capital programme which aims to tackle persistent vacant and derelict land and support place based approaches to delivering regeneration and sustainable inclusive growth, as part of a just transition to net-zero. It is available on a competitive basis to all Scottish local authorities and Clyde Gateway Urban Regeneration Company.

The VDLIP Independent Panel assess project proposals and make recommendations to Scottish Government on which projects should be funded, based on the aims and objectives of the fund.

A full list of projects warded funding from VDLIP is available at Low Carbon Fund: Vacant and Derelict Land Investment Programme projects - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) 

The fund will reopen for projects seeking funding for 2025-26 in April 2024.