Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-34193

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 27 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the current staffing levels are for community audiology services in (a) NHS Grampian and (b) Aberdeen, and how these compare with the recommended levels.

Question reference: S6W-34190

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 27 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what investment it is making in community audiology services to improve capacity and reduce waiting times (a) in NHS Grampian and (b) nationally.

Question reference: S6W-34127

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 27 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the process is for approving and authorising legal costs for current or former ministers, and how this is monitored to ensure value for money.

As with all decisions on the use of public funding the authorisation to meet costs would be cleared at the appropriate level within the organisation.

Accountable Officers are in place to ensure that public money is used efficiently and effectively in line with guidance published in the Scottish Public Finance Manual (SPFM). The SPFM provides guidance on the proper handling and reporting of public funds.

Question reference: S6W-34629

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 26 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its policy is on deer management and culling on land that it owns.

The Scottish Government is committed to modernising deer management to tackle high deer numbers, specifically in order to help us to achieve our biodiversity and carbon objectives. We continue to pursue a range of actions to deliver this commitment.

The Scottish Government’s future legislative programme has been set out as part of the 2024-25 Programme for Government. The Natural Environment Bill was introduced to parliament on 20 February 2025 and will bring forward significant reforms to the Deer (Scotland) Act 1996.

In addition to this we are working on the Deer Working Group recommendations that do not require primary legislation through the Strategic Deer Board.

Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS), is the executive agency which manages Scotland’s national forests and land. The majority of deer management on land owned by the Scottish Government on behalf of the nation is undertaken by FLS. Alongside land owned by the Scottish Government, public bodies also manage deer on public land they are responsible for. A number of these bodies are represented on the Strategic Deer Board.

Question reference: S6W-34632

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 26 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what methods are used for deer culling on land that it owns, and how it ensures humane practices.

Question reference: S6W-34204

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 26 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what criteria are used to determine whether private companies can be contracted to deliver audiology services, and whether it has assessed the impact of such arrangements on (a) service quality and (b) patient outcomes.

Question reference: S6W-34630

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 26 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many deer have been culled on land that it owns in each of the last five years, broken down by (a) species and (b) location.

Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) is the executive agency which manages Scotland’s national forests and land. The majority of deer management on land owned by the Scottish Government is undertaken by FLS. Alongside land owned by the Scottish Government, public bodies also manage deer on public land they are responsible for. This includes NatureScot and Scottish Water. Further detail on the deer management activities of these organisations is set as follows.

Forestry and Land Scotland

The number of deer culled on Scotland’s National Forests and Land (SNFL) 640,000 hectares in each of the last five complete culling seasons is as follows:-

Cull Season	Roe	Red	Sika	Fallow	Total	Location
2019-20	16550	12640	3200	460	32850	SNFL
2020-21*	15000	11410	3180	410	30000	SNFL
2021-22	18980	13280	3730	480	36460	SNFL
2022-23	20100	13110	3830	450	37490	SNFL
2023-24	21960	15110	4000	460	41540	SNFL
Percent	52%	37%	10%	1%
2024-25**	22320	15800	4330	550	43000	SNFL

*(reduced culling activity due to Covid-19)

**(cull forecast, to be delivered by 31/03/2025)

NatureScot

2019-20	Species				Total
Location	Red	Roe	Sika	Fallow
Ariundle	0	0	0	0	0
Beinn Eighe	98	5	12	0	115
Ben Lui	0	0	0	0	0
Ben Wyvis	0	0	0	0	0
Claish Moss	0	0	0	0	0
Corrie Fee	48	10	0	0	58
Craigellachie	0	0	0	0	0
Creag Meagaidh	0	0	0	0	0
Dell Woods	15	5	0	0	20
Flanders Moss	9	2	0	0	11
Glasdrum Wood	7	9	0	0	16
Glen Roy	0	0	0	0	0
Invereshie & Inshriach	0	0	0	0	0
Moine Mhor	0	0	0	0	0
Rum	0	0	0	0	0
Taynish	0	31	0	0	31
Loch Lomond	0	0	0	0	0
Total	177	62	12	0	251

2020-21	Species				Total
Location	Red	Roe	Sika	Fallow
Ariundle	0	0	0	0	0
Beinn Eighe	172	3	5	0	180
Ben Lui	35	0	0	0	35
Ben Wyvis	11	0	0	0	11
Claish Moss	9	0	0	0	9
Corrie Fee	51	12	0	0	63
Craigellachie	13	0	0	0	13
Creag Meagaidh	283	0	0	0	283
Dell Woods	6	2	0	0	8
Flanders Moss	12	0	0	0	12
Glasdrum Wood	17	0	0	0	17
Glen Roy	9	0	0	0	9
Invereshie & Inshriach	16	0	0	0	16
Moine Mhor	5	0	0	0	5
Rum	150	0	0	0	150
Taynish	0	9	0	0	9
Loch Lomond	0	0	0	1
Total	789	26	5	1	821

2021-22	Species				Total
Location	Red	Roe	Sika	Fallow
Ariundle	0	0	0	0	0
Beinn Eighe	0	0	0	0	0
Ben Lui	35	0	0	0	35
Ben Wyvis	8	0	0	0	8
Claish Moss	19	0	0	0	19
Corrie Fee	6	4	0	0	10
Craigellachie	12	0	0	0	12
Creag Meagaidh	165	0	0	0	165
Dell Woods	3	5	0	0	8
Flanders Moss	4	10	0	0	14
Glasdrum Wood	10	11	0	0	21
Glen Roy	6	0	0	0	6
Invereshie & Inshriach	34	0	0	0	34
Moine Mhor	10	0	0	0	10
Rum	152	0	0	0	152
Taynish	0	23	0	0	23
Loch Lomond	0	0	0	3	3
Total	464	53	0	3	520

2022-23	Species				Total
Location	Red	Roe	Sika	Fallow
Ariundle	0	0	0	0	0
Beinn Eighe	0	0	0	0	0
Ben Lui	35	0	0	0	35
Ben Wyvis	15	0	0	0	15
Claish Moss	15	0	0	0	15
Corrie Fee	11	4	0	0	15
Craigellachie	9	0	0	0	9
Creag Meagaidh	185	0	0	0	185
Dell Woods	3	1	0	0	4
Flanders Moss	9	12	0	0	21
Glasdrum Wood	9	12	0	0	21
Glen Roy	8	0	0	0	8
Invereshie & Inshriach	28	0	0	0	28
Moine Mhor	4	0	0	0	4
Rum	286	0	0	0	286
Taynish	0	23	0	0	23
Loch Lomond	0	0	0	1	1
Total	617	52	0	1	670

2023-24	Species				Total
Location	Red	Roe	Sika	Fallow
Ariundle	5	0	0	0	5
Beinn Eighe	144	4	22	0	170
Ben Lui	35	0	0	0	35
Ben Wyvis	19	0	0	0	19
Claish Moss	9	0	0	0	9
Corrie Fee	51	0	0	0	51
Craigellachie	10	0	0	0	10
Creag Meagaidh	250	0	0	0	250
Dell Woods	4	1	0	0	5
Flanders Moss	8	8	0	0	16
Glasdrum Wood	33	0	0	0	33
Glen Roy	23	0	0	0	23
Invereshie & Inshriach	25	0	0	0	25
Moine Mhor	27	0	0	0	27
Rum	312	0	0	0	312
Taynish	0	19	0	0	19
Loch Lomond	0	0	0	6	6
Total	955	32	22	6	1015

Scottish Water

Scottish Water does not monitor or keep records of deer numbers on their operational property so the data below and relates only to their rural catchment estate in East Grampian. This is broken down further by deer cull rate in specific locations over the last 2 years below:

2022-23	Habitat			Total
Species	Agriculture	Open Range	Woodland
Red Deer	0	64	228	292
Roe Deer	0	4	0	4

2023-24	Habitat			Total
Species	Agriculture	Open Range	Woodland
Red Deer	90	144	0	234
Roe Deer		3		0

Question reference: S6W-34627

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 26 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many deer are estimated to be on land that it owns, broken down by (a) species and (b) location.

Deer numbers in forested or woodland environments are very difficult to estimate due to dense cover and the mobile nature of deer.

Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) is the executive agency which manages Scotland’s national forests and land. The majority of deer management on land owned by the Scottish Government is undertaken by FLS. Alongside land owned by the Scottish Government, public bodies also manage deer on public land they are responsible for. This includes NatureScot and Scottish Water. Further detail on the deer management activities of these organisations is as follows.

Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS)

FLS estimate Scotland’s National Forests and Land’s (SNFL), deer population to be around 130,000 deer. This estimate is based on culling data. The break-down by species is as follows:

Species	Numbers	Percentage	Location
Roe	67600	52%	SNFL
Red	48100	37%	SNFL
Sika	13000	10%	SNFL
Fallow	1300	1%	SNFL
Total	130000	100%

NatureScot

The estimated number of deer across all National Nature Reserves (NNRs) owned by NatureScot is 1500. This estimate is broken down by species below and a full cull return including species breakdown is set out in the answer to S6W-34630 on
26 February 2025.

Location	Species
	Red	Roe	Sika
Rum	900	0	0
Beinn Eighe	100	10	10
Creag Meagaidh	60	30	30
Invereshie & Inshriach	25	20	5
Craigellachie (leased not owned)	0	15	10
Dell Woods	15	10	0
Ben Wyvis	30	10	10
Glen Roy	104	5	5
Ariundle	5	10	0
Claish Moss	15	5	0
Knockan Crag	3	2	0
Loch Fleet (leased not owned)	5	10	0
TOTAL	1262	127	70

Scottish Water

Scottish Water does not monitor or keep records of deer numbers on their operational property so the data below and relates only to their rural catchment estate within the East Grampian Deer Management Group Area. This is broken down further by habitat over the last 2 years below:

2022-23	Habitat			Total
Species	Agriculture	Open Range	Woodland
Red Deer	0	64	228	292
Roe Deer	0	4	0	4

2023-24	Habitat			Total
Species	Agriculture	Open Range	Woodland
Red Deer	90	144	0	234
Roe Deer		3		0

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

Question reference: S6W-34633

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 26 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what revenue it has received from deer culling activities on land that it owns in each of the last five years.

Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) is the executive agency which manages Scotland’s national forests and land. The majority of deer management on land owned by the Scottish Government is undertaken by FLS. Alongside land owned by the Scottish Government, public bodies also manage deer on public land they are responsible for. This includes NatureScot and Scottish Water. Further detail on the revenue these organisations have received from deer management activities is as follows.

Forestry and Land Scotland

FLS income from deer carcasses, the associated bye-products and fees from leases/permissions for recreational stalking, has amounted to:

Year	Amount
2019-20	£1750000
2020-21*	£835000
2021-22	£1280000
2022-23	£1440000
2023-24	£1700000

*(reduced culling activity due to Covid-19)

NatureScot

NatureScot revenue is approximately £55,000 in each of the last five years except from in 2020-21 when there was reduced culling activity due to Covid-19. This is includes revenue from stalking leases and venison sales.

Scottish Water

Scottish Water's income from deer management comes from the rent for sporting rights at Backwater and Lintrathen, the total rental income over the last five years comes to £77,000. However, at Backwater this income includes grouse as well as deer, so the total income from deer culling activities will be lower. In addition, there is a lease for shooting at Little Ballo which includes for red deer in the sum of £500 per annum over the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-34622

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 26 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of the livestock kept on land that it owns is farmed directly by (a) it and (b) under lease or tenancy agreements.

Chamber and committees