Chamber and committees

Decisions on licence applications are taken by NatureScot on a case-by-case basis taking into account all relevant information. The arrangements for restricting the use of General Licences are set out in detail on the NatureScot website. We consider these arrangements to be a fair and proportionate response where there is evidence of wildlife crime. We do not think an automatic restriction on all other licence applications is necessary or justified.

An individual licence may be issued, where a general licence restriction has been imposed, where there is evidence that the licence is required to deliver legitimate land management or other work. Applicants must provide detail as to the requirement for an individual licence, therefore, individual licences allow more control by the licensing authority. Details such as number of a species to be controlled, time and place can be specified on the licence. The licence will also usually require the applicant to report on the activities carried out.

For example, NatureScot has previously issued individual licences to employees of landholdings where general licenses restriction are in place, for the prevention of serious damage to livestock. In this case for example the licence was for heavily restricted use only in specified locations.

The Shared Outcomes Framework is the means by which Skills Development Scotland (SDS) and the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) will monitor and report on collaborative projects that contribute to overarching skills outcomes.

The projects in the framework support the skills actions set in the National Strategy for Economic Transformation (NSET) and the missions of the Future Skills Action Plan, in particular around the alignment of economic demand with current and future provision. The actions outlined in this framework also contribute to delivery of the outcomes in the National Performance Framework and recognise the findings of the SFC’s review of coherence and sustainability in tertiary education and research.

The Framework defines the collaborative projects that are geared towards the strategic intent of supporting enhanced alignment of provision with economic need, resulting in a more agile and responsive system, including a more balanced

portfolio of provision where the evidence supports this being needed.

The Shared Outcomes Framework has been published today and is available here : https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781804351789

The Shared Outcomes Framework is a live framework that is published here in its first iteration. It has been agreed with and is supported by the Chief Executives and Chairs of SDS and SFC and will form the basis for regular performance monitoring through the Shared Outcomes Assurance Group and through my regular 6 weekly meetings with the senior leaders of both agencies.

This document will be updated as we develop further measures to track the impact of the projects and will continue to evolve as the projects progress, and to align with the delivery and governance structures for the delivery of the NSET.

The Scottish Government has provided funding of £22.5m for the five National Performing Companies for 2021-22, and maintained their International Touring Fund of £350,000. The same amount of funding is in the 2022-23 budget.

The breakdown of funding is below:

The data is not available in the format requested.

Men become eligible for Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) screening when they reach age 65, and should receive an initial invite before their 66 th birthday. The programme monitors the proportion of the eligible population who are sent an initial offer to screening before age 66 as a key performance indicator.

In March 2020 all adult screening programmes, including the AAA programme, were temporarily paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The AAA screening programme resumed in July 2020, prioritising men in the high risk cohort.

The latest data published on 1 March 2022 shows that the programme has maintained screening the eligible population before they turn 66 and 3 months at a rate above 75% which is similar to pre-COVID-19 rates and in line with the programmes recovery route map. 90.5% of men were invited for screening before their 66th birthday. The full report is available here: https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/scottish-abdominal-aortic-aneurysm-aaa-screening-programme-statistics/scottish-abdominal-aortic-aneurysm-aaa-screening-programme-statistics-year-ending-31-march-2021/.

This is a reserved policy area. Responsibility for security of supply sits with National Grid ESO (the GB electricity system operator).

The UK government has now included renewables in the Capacity Market to recognise their “measurable contribution” to security of supply. Renewables sites in Scotland have been successful in securing contracts in the latest T-4 and T-1 Capacity Market Auctions.

Renewable capacity in Scotland includes onshore and offshore wind, hydro, solar, marine technologies, bioenergy and waste.

The equivalent of 98.6% of gross electricity consumption in Scotland (around 30 GigaWatt hours, GWh) comes from renewable sources.

The Scottish Government’s Agri-Environment Climate Scheme fund includes options to help support waders and has so far committed £38.8m that will directly benefit waders since the scheme opened in 2015.

Working for Waders is a partnership project involving a wide range of land management and conservation organisations and groups across Scotland. The project provides financial support through small grants directly to farmers and other land managers for activities which support waders. NatureScot have provided £392,000 to the project in direct support of wader work in Scotland over the last four years, with contributions in kind from project partners including expertise and support to deliver outcomes.

It is not possible to provide year-on-year declines in the numbers of waders in Scotland as data on breeding birds in not gathered in a way that can provide this information. However the table below provides trend figures taken from the latest Breeding Bird Survey, published by the British Trust for Ornithology, for the main 5 species of wader that breed on Scottish farmland over five and ten years. Further details on that data, and the full Breeding Bird Survey, is available at: https://www.bto.org/our-science/publications/birdtrends/2020

In the last three years the Scottish Government has provided more than £45 M of funding to support the planting of more than 13,200 hectares of native woodland. How much funding was committed, and how many hectares were planted in 2019, 2020 and 2021 is shown in the following table.

The Scottish Government has no immediate plans to introduce such legislation. However our new air quality strategy 'Cleaner Air for Scotland 2 - Towards a Better Place for Everyone' sets out a series of actions intended to deliver further air quality improvements over the period to 2026. Amongst these actions are several which focus on reducing emissions from domestic fuel combustion.

An expert working group, which met for the first time in January 2022, has been established to advise the Government on taking forward these actions. Further information will be made publicly available as this work proceeds.

The Scottish Government recognises, and will continue to champion, onshore wind as a key part of Scotland’s energy mix. Continued growth in onshore wind will be a vital component in meeting our net zero ambitions.

The Onshore Wind Policy Statement consultation was launched on 28 October 2021, which includes our ambition that an additional 8-12 GW of onshore wind be installed by 2030.

The consultation considered key themes such as barriers to deployment, community benefits and shared ownership, circular economy and supply chain opportunities.

The consultation closed on 31 January 2022, and a full policy statement is expected to be published later this year with consultation analysis also to be published in due course.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-14655 on 13 March 2018. 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

As of March 2022, 7 adverse events relating to the device have been submitted to NHS Scotland's Incident Reporting and Investigation Centre.