Chamber and committees

So, the only reason you have brought in rabbits is to stop hare coursing. Across the country, on every day of the year, young farmers go out hunting rabbits, maybe with their dogs, not only as pest control—in many places, rabbits can be defined as a pest, whereas hares certainly cannot—but as a source of income. Will that type of hunting feel the impact of this, just in order to close a loophole over hare coursing?

We will move to questions on section 3 of the bill.

We will move on to questions on section 5 of the bill.

There is no provision for a licence to allow more than one dog. However, if there were a situation in which NatureScot considered it more humane or safer, because of animal welfare considerations, to use more than one dog, why would that not be possible? It seems prescriptive to say that people can use only one dog. If there were such situations, why would a licence not ensure that the highest welfare standards were upheld?

Jenni Minto has a question on section 6.

Thank you. We will need to move on. Alasdair Allan and Beatrice Wishart will cover sections 11 and 12.

Question 14 in our papers, which is on that issue, relates to sections 11 and 12, so you can ask about that now.

Jenni Minto has a supplementary question on that point.

Thank you. That is useful.

I will bring in Alasdair Allan, who wants to go back to sections 1 and 2 of the bill, on offences.