Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S5W-00707

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 29 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how Scottish Natural Heritage selects the owners from whom it requests statutory cull returns for the taking or killing of wild deer.

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) selects the owners from whom it requests statutory cull returns using their properties database, which is largely comprised of: properties within upland deer management group areas where collaboration between ownerships is required; properties which apply for out of season or night shooting authorisations; or properties where SNH has identified a need to better understand cull levels in assessing impacts to public interest.

Question reference: S5W-00709

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 29 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether Scottish Natural Heritage has carried out a review of the levels of competence among people who shoot deer, as required under the Deer (Scotland) Act 1996 and, if not, when such a review will take place.

Question reference: S5W-00706

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 29 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether Scottish Natural Heritage will revise its statutory cull return forms for 2016-17 to include space for the owner's or occupier’s planned cull in the following year.

Question reference: S5W-00708

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 29 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what the difference has been in each of the last three years between the total number of culled deer from the statutory returns and from game dealers’ records.

Question reference: S5W-00702

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 29 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers that there is a case for reviewing whether the use of night sights for the shooting of deer should be permitted.

A panel under Section 4 of the Deer (Scotland) Act 1996 is currently reviewing the use of authorisations issued by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) to shoot deer, which includes the regulation of night shooting. The panel is due to provide a report to SNH by the end of August 2016.

Any change to allow the use of night sights for the shooting of deer would require a change to the Deer (Firearms etc.) (Scotland) Order 1985.

Question reference: S5W-00703

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 29 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many owners and occupiers of land have been required by Scottish Natural Heritage to make a return of the number of wild deer taken or killed in each of the last three years and how many have made such a return in each local authority area.

The number of statutory cull return requests which were issued by Scottish Natural Heritage and the number of cull return received from specific properties are shown below. Additional returns received (*) in some years reflect cull returns from additional properties, provided by individuals who have been in receipt of cull return requests.

Changes in ownership, partial sales of properties mean that there are slight variations between years in the numbers of properties where statutory returns are requested.

2012 - 2013

2013 - 2014

2014 - 2015

	Issued	Received	Issued	Received	Issued	Received
Aberdeen City	3	3	*3	*4	3	3
Aberdeenshire	*141	*149	159	148	162	149
Angus	*58	*69	*59	*66	60	70
Argyll and Bute	440	376	447	383	471	401
Clackmannanshire	*4	*5	4	4	4	3
Dumfries and Galloway	394	379	417	381	425	385
East Ayrshire	50	45	50	44	54	46
East Dunbartonshire	8	6	8	6	8	7
East Lothian	13	13	13	13	13	13
Edinburgh City	3	3	3	3	3	3
Falkirk	*13	*14	14	12	14	14
Fife	26	26	26	25	26	26
Glasgow City	2	1	2	1	2	2
Highland	826	774	856	745	888	772
Inverclyde	3	3	3	3	3	3
Midlothian	8	6	8	6	8	7
Moray	*63	*64	65	62	68	67
North Ayrshire	22	21	23	19	23	22
North Lanarkshire	*11	*15	16	16	17	16
Perth and Kinross	234	233	240	223	246	242
Renfrewshire	5	4	5	5	5	4
Scottish Borders	201	193	205	186	207	187
South Ayrshire	49	49	*53	*56	55	54
South Lanarkshire	71	70	*73	*75	*73	*79
Stirling	169	120	173	121	178	129
West Dunbartonshire	7	6	10	6	10	6
West Lothian	8	8	9	8	10	9
Western Isles	*19	*23	19	18	19	19
Total	2851	2678	2963	2639	3055	2738

Question reference: S5W-00705

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 29 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many wild deer have been taken or killed in each local authority area in each of the last three years, broken down by species.

2012 -13

2013-14

2014-15

Council	Species	Count	Species	Count	Species	Count
Aberdeen City	Roe	87	Roe	121	Roe	137
Aberdeenshire	Red	2962	Red	3889	Red	3355
	Roe	4145	Roe	4111	Roe	4242
					Sika	4
					Fallow	3
Angus	Fallow	5	Fallow	3	Fallow	1
	Red	1680	Red	1946	Red	1831
	Roe	1138	Roe	914	Roe	874
Argyll and Bute	Fallow	57	Fallow	52	Fallow	98
	Red	8404	Red	10180	Red	9585
	Roe	2565	Roe	2841	Roe	2668
	Sika	1795	Sika	1765	Sika	1613
Clackmannanshire	Roe	19	Roe	2	Roe	23
Dumfries and Galloway	Fallow	784	Fallow	670	Fallow	1246
	Red	1085	Red	1059	Red	1462
	Roe	6899	Roe	7142	Roe	7744
	Sika	9	Sika	11	Sika	18
East Ayrshire	Red	13	Red	7	Red	23
	Roe	534	Roe	679	Roe	672
East Dunbartonshire			Red	2	Red	2
	Roe	142	Roe	152	Roe	201
East Lothian	Roe	214	Roe	191	Roe	175
Edinburgh City	Roe	19	Roe	25	Roe	26
Falkirk	Roe	143	Roe	154	Roe	190
Fife	Fallow	39
	Red	35	Red	36	Red	35
	Roe	422	Roe	579	Roe	551
	Sika	14	Sika	8	Sika	7
Glasgow City	Roe	23	Roe	20	Roe	50
Highland	Fallow	2	Fallow	8	Fallow	2
	Red	28967	Red	30739	Red	35988
	Roe	5176	Roe	6139	Roe	6668
	Sika	3271	Sika	4047	Sika	4112
Inverclyde	Roe	41	Roe	44	Roe	41
Midlothian	Roe	219	Roe	233	Roe	260
Moray	Red	632	Red	509	Red	811
	Roe	2227	Roe	2705	Roe	3004
	Sika	1			Sika	4
North Ayrshire	Red	327	Red	367	Red	450
	Roe	16	Roe	39	Roe	46
North Lanarkshire	Red	2			Red	4
	Roe	151	Roe	203	Roe	194
					Sika	1
Perth and Kinross	Fallow	772	Fallow	887	Fallow	1068
	Red	8814	Red	8635	Red	9801
	Roe	2694	Roe	2378	Roe	3036
	Sika	4	Sika	31	Sika	10
Renfrewshire	Roe	24	Roe	50	Roe	51
Scottish Borders	Fallow	18	Fallow	20	Fallow	20
	Red	10	Red	5	Red	16
	Roe	3453	Roe	3360	Roe	3579
	Sika	777	Sika	684	Sika	822
South Ayrshire	Red	351	Fallow	1	Fallow	1
	Roe	897	Red	465	Red	482
			Roe	1262	Roe	1313
South Lanarkshire					Red	9
	Roe	858	Roe	910	Roe	1006
	Sika	60	Sika	136	Sika	90
Stirling	Fallow	2	Fallow	14	Fallow	4
	Red	3788	Red	3840	Red	3630
	Roe	1155	Roe	1253	Roe	1576
	Sika	152	Sika	13	Sika	2
West Dunbartonshire	Red	9	Red	15	Red	8
	Roe	152	Roe	173	Roe	122
West Lothian	Fallow	17	Fallow	7	Fallow	22
	Roe	140	Roe	160	Roe	175
Western Isles	Red	669	Red	699	Red	570

Question reference: S5W-00704

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 29 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many statutory cull returns Scottish Natural Heritage has received in each of the last three years, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S5W-00904

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 27 June 2016

The Scottish Government does not collect this data on an annual basis. The final report of the 1 Million Acre Short Life Working Group, which was published in December 2015, stated that there were 480,000 acres in community ownership. The report can be found at the following link: http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/12/5735

A recent article from Community Land Scotland, placed the current figure at 540,000 acres. The article can be found at the following link: http://www.communitycouncils.scot/community-landownership-scotland%E2%80%99s-growing-movement.html

Question reference: S5W-00426

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 16 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many proposals for land management orders Scottish Natural Heritage has made since 2004; on what sites, and for what features.