Chamber and committees

Once beavers become a European Protected Species, the controls and conditions set by Scottish Natural Heritage, including those applying to the exercise of any lethal control, will apply throughout the year and on a case-by-case basis.

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) issued Scottish Beavers (a partnership between the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland and the Scottish Wildlife Trust) with a licence on 18 September 2017 to reinforce the existing population of beavers at Knapdale with up to 28 animals by 2020. The donor animals will come from captive collections in the United Kingdom and wild-trapped beavers from Tayside. SNH is currently working with Scottish Beavers to finalise plans to relocate wild-trapped beavers from Tayside as part of this conservation translocation project.

While this translocation approach is important in the context of reinforcing the beaver population in Knapdale, it is not considered to be a standard option for dealing with beaver impacts on Tayside, given the costs and other resource implications, the risks to the welfare of the animals and the limited number of receptor sites.

The Scottish Government recognises that beaver dams may mitigate downstream flooding in some circumstances and that these dams can also trap silt and other materials from watercourses. Discussions are currently taking place between farming representatives and Scottish Government officials on managing beaver impacts.

ScotRail provides my officials at Transport Scotland with statistical information on the public performance measurement (PPM), which is used in the railway system in Great Britain to provide a consistent and comparable assessment of performance. The PPM measure counts all trains planned to run, which run and arrive within five minutes of their scheduled arrival time. Trains which are cancelled, either in full or in part, or which do not stop at stations at which they are meant to stop, are counted against this measure.

There are occasions when train services need to allow more time to allow those with disabilities or impairments, or parents with prams, to board the trains. With this in mind, the PPM measure offers a balanced and sensible view of train performance.

ScotRail also provides information on full and part cancellations and all of these aspects are then compared against the benchmarks embedded in the franchise agreement and discussed with ScotRail to ensure compliance with the franchise agreement.

The introduction of the new faster, greener, longer trains for passengers across Central Scotland, planned for December 2018, will allow a significant improvement in both journey times and performance against the timetable.

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) will monitor work undertaken under the licence to cull ravens granted to the Strathbraan Community Collaboration for Waders throughout the year, including carrying out inspections on the ground. The licence has been granted initially for one year, for the culling of no more than 69 ravens. SNH will review its position on the licence at the end of the first licence period.

I am pleased that, along with the Welsh Cabinet Secretary, I have been able to encourage discussions between the four UK administrations on future environmental ambitions. My own ambition, that Scotland should maintain and where possible enhance our current environmental standards, and should continue to play a leading role in furthering environmental protection is well known. No conclusion has been reached on publishing a joint statement.

There is no Partnership Against Wildlife Crime Scotland protocol on the conduct of police searches for missing raptors. The conduct of such searches is entirely an operational decision for, and the responsibility of, Police Scotland.

The circumstances of the recent disappearance of a satellite-tagged while-tailed eagle are similar to those defined as “suspicious” in the Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) report, Analyses of the fate of satellite tracked golden eagles in Scotland. The case is the subject of an on-going Police Scotland investigation. SNH will take any decisions on restricting General Licences based on information received from Police Scotland and in line with their published General Framework for Implementing Restrictions .

There is no evidence to link the disappearance of this satellite-tagged white-tailed eagle with those land managers taking part in the licensed trial in the Strathbraan/Glen Quaich area of Perthshire. SNH has no plans to revoke the licence for this trial, which has been granted initially for one year.

Our franchise agreement does not obligate the franchisee to provide the information in the format requested by the member.

ScotRail provides my officials at Transport Scotland with statistical information on the public performance measurement (PPM), which is used in the railway system in Great Britain to provide a consistent and comparable assessment of performance. The PPM measure counts all trains planned to run, which run and arrive within five minutes of their scheduled arrival time. Trains which are cancelled, either in full or in part, or which do not stop at stations at which they are meant to stop, are counted against this measure.

Performance information for ScotRail is available on-line, at the ORR Data Portal (Table 3.18). An on-line link to this table can be found here:

http://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/displayreport/report/html/5b6fbf8a-7fab-469e-9855-6c6cb4ff67dc

It includes ScotRail’s PPM information by operating sector and overall, on both a by-period and a moving-annual-average basis.

Also, ScotRail publishes quite detailed information for each four week period on by-station and by-sector PPM. This information is published at stations, and is also available on-line, at this URL: https://www.scotrail.co.uk/performance-and-reliability

The introduction of the new faster, greener, longer trains for passengers across Central Scotland, planned for December 2018, will allow a significant improvement in both journey times and performance against the timetable.

Peak- and off-peak capacity for ScotRail services between Glasgow Queen St and Dunblane, or which call at Dunblane, is as follows: