Chamber and committees

I am happy to cover that matter. As I have already stated, 17 per cent of deer are already shot at night. Night licences for shooting can be issued only under NatureScot authorisation, and they come with clear conditions attached. The code of practice that comes with them explicitly says, for example, that anyone shooting deer at night must be accompanied by an appropriate dog, so that a wounded deer can be tracked and dispatched humanely. NatureScot can revoke any authorisation at any time, and it will issue the authorisation only under specific conditions. It can come to inspect the site to ensure that it is safe, which relates to the public safety concerns that you raise. At any time during the authorisation period, NatureScot can ask to come along on the shoot to observe that the rules are being followed. None of that is changed by the SSI; those authorisations and safety conditions are going to be monitored in exactly the same way.

That is a good question. I ask Jackie Hughes to say whether that is a characteristic of Asulam.

No, that—

They apply to the Health and Safety Executive.

I have just the evidence that is in front of us, which is that Scottish Water regularly detects residues of Asulam in water supplies. As the result of one ground-spraying incident, the levels exceeded drinking water standard limits. Asulam is getting into the water table.

That relates only to Scottish Water’s responsibility, which is the public water supply. In the uplands where spraying is happening, there are many private water supplies that are not tested, so we do not know whether they are being contaminated.

It has completed that work.

The testing of water supplies was not one of the things that the James Hutton Institute identified, but that is an interesting point. If we take Asulam out of the system by not allowing the emergency authorisation this year, we will not expect such contamination to occur.

That is a really good question. For the 2023 season, some people received money through AECS for chemical control. We have removed the ability for them to do that. It was agreed that those who had received funding would retain it and that they could alter their proposal. For example, if it was useful for them to use the money for mechanical control, that could be done. We allowed some flexibility to make sure that those AECS recipients could still make use of the funding that they had received. The cabinet secretary has—budgetary pressures permitting—committed to include funding for bracken control in the next round of AECS.

NatureScot will update the best practice guide.

I support your call for a thriving venison industry, and I agree that we should ensure that those deer become a reliable food source. You correctly identified that changing the ammunition weight allows non-lead ammunition to be used by more practitioners, because it fits the standard firearm that most people have.

We are doing several things to ensure that there is a thriving venison industry. We have been working with those in the industry to promote venison as a healthy lean meat by providing £60,000 of funding for an online marketing campaign. We have been supporting local chill and processing facilities through £80,000 of funding being made available for a pilot project. I am also aware that the Scottish Venison Association has recently announced that its partnership with the Country Food Trust will result in wild venison from Scottish deer going to food banks, kitchens and other charities.