Chamber and committees

We absolutely need to make sure that venison can go into the venison industry and that we remove lead ammunition and increase the options there. I think that we can all work towards ensuring that we have a thriving venison industry. Does Hugh Dignon want to come in on that?

The Scottish Animal Welfare Commission and OneKind were among the stakeholders that were consulted on the proposals, and no welfare concerns were raised by those organisations, which prioritise animal welfare—that is their reason for being—in relation to the legislative proposals. That has been looked at.

Edward Mountain briefly mentioned the use of dogs for night shooting. It is, of course, part of the good practice guidelines to have a dog to make sure that any animal can be tracked.

Every night-shooting project gets its own authorisation. Authorisations are for a fixed period of time, under fixed circumstances, and they specify which practitioners are doing the work, so—

I do not have that information with me, but I am happy to write to the committee with it.

We are bringing forward all these proposals by the deer management group to help manage the numbers of deer in Scotland, which have doubled in the past 30 years. We know that that is not sustainable; we need to be able to cull deer. The fact is that deer, including male deer, nibble at shoots and trees and trample the peat year round. We need to be able to manage their numbers.

Male deer close seasons were traditionally in place not for animal welfare reasons but to ensure that male deer were able to grow suitable antlers for use in the sporting season. As there is no animal welfare reason for male close seasons, removing the close season does not affect welfare.

However, it does mean that practitioners are able to shoot deer year round without that administrative burden. Some 48 per cent—so, nearly half—of male deer culled in Scotland are already culled out of season. However, to do so, operators have to submit quite a lot of paperwork, so it is an administrative burden. The legislation will change that to allow people to do what they are already doing, but without the paperwork.

The 15 per cent includes female deer—the 48 per cent relates to male deer.

No, I do not think that that is true. I do not have evidence to that effect, but I do not think that it is true. Our land managers and stalkers share the concern of members in this room about animal welfare, and they manage their animals in the best interests of the animals’ health and the landscape.

It is, of course, up to the land manager and the professional undertaking the deer management to make decisions on animal welfare. If they feel that the animals are being harassed or that there is a welfare concern, they can decide not to undertake that stalking activity at that time. That is fully within the discretion of the professionals who undertake that activity, and I know that those professionals take animal welfare very seriously.

The human safety concerns are initially around deer-vehicle collisions. There are estimated to be between 8,000 and 14,000 such collisions in Scotland every year. They are, of course, a risk to human safety, and they also represent a cost. The estimate is that DVCs in Scotland cost £13.8 million per year. That figure is from 2016 so, again, it is likely to be higher now.

There are also some concerns around hosts for Lyme disease. When we look at the other instrument that we will discuss this morning, which is on bracken, we can discuss the fact that more evidence is required to understand tick-borne disease. We do not have a huge amount of evidence on that, but it is likely to have an impact.

I am afraid that the member is not accurate in what she has said. The SSI does not require the use of night sights; it allows the use of night sights.

The SSI that will be passed today allows the use of the equipment. We know that 17 per cent of the deer that are culled in Scotland are culled at night, so we know that people wish to do that. If they wish to cull deer at night, they may now do so using sights. That is the change to the legislation. We are not requiring anyone to manage deer in that way, and we are not requiring them to use any particular equipment. We are merely opening up the option should they wish to do that.

With regard to the fit and competent test, the fit test relates to someone having a certificate to be able to use firearms, and the competent test relates to someone holding the correct deer stalking certificate and the correct authorisations from NatureScot. Those matters are unchanged. Of course, the authorisation will be in line with the new guidance that NatureScot will issue on using the equipment safely.

I think that Rachael Hamilton has misunderstood. The SSI does not require anything of anyone. It just allows the equipment to be used should people wish to do so.