Chamber and committees

Scottish Ministers and SG officials meet with NRS on a regular basis, to discuss a wide range of matters, such as the Census. Most recently, the Minister for Community Wealth and Public Finance met with the interim Chief Executive on 5 July 2023 and I met with her on 20 July 2023.

The Scottish Government welcomes that the British Veterinary Association sees advantages and opportunities in the creation of a Scottish Veterinary Service (SVS), and also agrees with the veterinary profession's representative body that there are risks that must be managed. To do so, a Programme has been put in place to manage the work required to establish an SVS.

Animal diseases do not respect borders, and Officials in the Programme have identified areas where communication, cooperation and interoperability between the future Scottish Veterinary Service and its counterparts in the rest of GB or the UK is required for effective delivery, such as data sharing, science and research, contingency planning and mutual assistance for major incidents and disease outbreaks.

Scottish Government Officials liaise regularly with the Animal and Plant health Agency, as well as Defra, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive officials to ensure that suitable arrangements are in place, in due course, to mitigate against any risks to animal health and welfare as a result of different arrangement for the delivery of veterinary controls in Scotland.

Scottish Ministers, the Chief Veterinary Officer, and officials communicate with the British Veterinary Association regularly on this and other animal health and welfare matters, and will continue to do so as the Programme develops.

The Scottish Government is committed to the creation of a Scottish Veterinary Service (SVS) to ensure there are highly trained staff to provide Scotland with good animal health and food safety to meet all our needs across the public and private sector for animal health issues.

Animal health and welfare matters are devolved, and were so before the creation of an Scottish Veterinary Service was considered. The Scottish Government is satisfied that any future changes to the arrangements for the delivery of veterinary controls will be purely operational and have negligible implications for the operation of the Internal Market Act 2020.

The UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Act 2021 sets out the requirement for annual reports of the Scottish Ministers use, planned use and considered use of the Section 1(1) power of the Act. The Scottish Government has no plans to propose changes to the Act in respect of reporting its use of the Section 1(1) power. However, The Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, Culture and External Affairs wrote to the Convener of the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture committee on 28 June to propose providing further information annually on the policy commitment to EU alignment, namely:

· how alignment has been considered in respect of legislation made in the Scottish Parliament over the reporting year;

· an assessment of EU legislation made over the reporting year that may be relevant to the commitment to align;

· where Scotland’s policy priorities in respect of the EU lie in the coming year; and

· reporting of the impact of the UK Government’s Retained EU Law Bill on Scotland and our ability to align with the EU to protect high standards.

Ministers look forward to receiving the Committee’s consideration of these proposals, and shall continue to work with the committee to ensure transparency in our approach to Parliament.

Stantec’s Community Needs Assessments report on transport connectivity for Cowal and Rosneath is still being finalised and will be published in due course. The outputs from all the Community Needs Assessment will also feed into the Islands Connectivity Plan.

The Scottish Government is not aware of any noise monitoring enforcement trials introduced by any road authority within the last five years.

The Transport Scotland remote sensing study is assessing real-world vehicle emissions in four main cities in Scotland (Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, and Glasgow).

The first of three emission testing campaigns, scheduled for 2021 to 2023, took place during October 2021, and the campaign collected over 225,000 air quality measurements from 95,000 unique vehicles using contact-less remote sensing technology.

During 2022, as part of preparing to include noise emissions in the study, Transport Scotland evaluated worldwide progress on roadside vehicle noise monitoring techniques, conducted motorcycle noise assessment work, and compared noise and air quality emissions at one of the remote sensing sites in Edinburgh.

A final round of air quality monitoring began on 29 June 2023 and will continue until 1 August, with detailed noise monitoring planned for inclusion in this work.

Transport Scotland consider all enquiries regarding harbour orders, and provide feedback for applicants to consider how the requirements of becoming a Statutory Harbour Authority could be met. Transport Scotland officials have corresponded with and provided advice to the Annan Harbour Action Group at various junctures over the last 3 years and continue to correspond with the Group on its proposals.

The Scottish Government has regular discussions with the UK Government regarding pet travel rules through a number of forums. The rules require all dogs entering the UK to be treated against Echinococcus multilocularis (tapeworm) unless they are entering from a tapeworm free country. Risk assessments are undertaken for zoonotic diseases, including tick-borne diseases, to ensure pet travel disease prevention measures remain relevant in protecting public and animal health.

The Scottish Government publishes statistics relating to the number of reports of suspected illegal fishing inside Marine Protected Areas. These statistics detail the number of reports by suspected fishing method, including scallop dredging. Reports of illegal fishing are investigated by Marine Directorate officers to determine whether an offence has been committed, and whether there is sufficient evidence to pursue further action. Not all reports are confirmed illegal incursions. Marine and fisheries compliance: reports of illegal fishing in marine protected areas - 26 May 2020 to 31 May 2022 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)