Chamber and committees

FLS, for example, according to Brodie Wilson’s figures, accounts for 11,000 male deer being culled, without any general authorisation being turned down. If it continues to do that, the same number of deer will be controlled. If land managers who control land in private ownership choose to observe the close season, you will be in the same position as you are currently in on publicly owned land.

Are you not worried about the effect of the growing bracken on watercourses?

You referred to a figure of 2 per cent. I must have spoken to all the people who are affected, at the Royal Highland Show and the Kelso show. The topic of conversation seemed to be that land managers were left without any ability to look to an alternative. If there were concerns and the devolved Administration had the ability to make a decision much more quickly, why did you not do that, to give people clarity?

What is the total number of members? I was not able to count them as you read them out.

So, that was quite a poor response rate.

Minister, how many operators are on the fit and competent register and how many spot checks does NatureScot do?

You are trying to control the deer population, which means that more operators will go out and shoot more.

No, this is an unintended consequence. Let us consider the practicalities. Things need to be safe, and you are expecting operators to go out and shoot more deer in order to control the deer population, so they will be doing more shooting, possibly at night. It is a hypothetical situation, but the likelihood is that that will happen, so operators will require the right equipment. Why would you not want an operator to have the right equipment? I do not understand.

What percentage of the operators doing that are operating within public land?

I have a question on that. How long did you give stakeholders to respond to the consultation? On what date did you publish the consultation and when did they respond? What was the closing date?