Chamber and committees

The need for a review of the merits of a specific offence of pet theft is written into the recently enacted Animals and Wildlife (Penalties, Protections and Powers) (Scotland) Act 2020, to be completed no later than 1 st April 2025. It is the Scottish Government’s intention to review the issue of pet theft in due course as part of the wider review of animal health, welfare and wildlife legislation required by the Act.

The Scottish Government is dismayed by the reported rise in the theft of dogs and would encourage dog owners to report any concerns to Police Scotland, be extremely vigilant, ensure dogs are microchipped, and also report the loss/theft to the microchip database operators to ensure that if anyone attempts to re-register the microchip number, the rightful owner will be informed.

The primary responsibility for the prevention and investigation of theft lies with Police Scotland and the Chief Constable.

The Scottish Government assists Police Scotland by supporting in any legislative requirements they identify as necessary in their efforts to prevent and detect theft. The Microchipping of Dogs (Scotland) Regulations 2016 came into force on 29 January 2016, making it a statutory requirement for all dogs over the age of 8 weeks to be identifiable with an implanted microchip which is registered on a database from which Police and local authority officers can request information on owners.

Full details of the projects funded through the Rural Tourism Infrastructure Fund in 2020-21 can be found on the VisitScotland website.

Rural Development Fund - Funding | VisitScotland.org .

The PFI contracts in place for car parking are held between each of the NHS Boards, NHS Lothian, NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde and NHS Tayside, and the PFI providers. Therefore discussions with the PFI providers are led by NHS Boards, not the Scottish Government. The Scottish Government attended a meeting between NHS Tayside and the Ninewells Hospital PFI car park operator on 16 December 2020. Further discussions have taken place since that date between NHS Tayside and the PFI car park operator. The Scottish Government has not attended meetings between NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, NHS Lothian and their PFI car park operators.

Since the suspension of charges, the costs of parking and therefore total savings for all users are estimated to be in the region of £8.1m.

Beyond this, there is no means to robustly track the composition of those individuals who are using these car parks and therefore it is not possible to appropriate estimated savings to each of these groups.

The Scottish Transport Statistics report an increase in car use from 35,362 to 36,747 million vehicle kilometres driven in Scotland between 2016 and 2019. We do not yet have these figures for 2020, which will have been impacted by the Covid-19 restrictions. This happened alongside significant population and economic growth. During this time period, Scotland’s population grew by almost 60,000 and the country’s Gross Domestic Product grew by 3.6% in real terms.

Transport is Scotland’s highest carbon emitting sector, and the largest source of transport emissions is cars. This is why in the Climate Change Plan Update (published December 2020), we committed to reduce car use in Scotland by 20% by 2030. This is monitored as part of the Climate Change Plan monitoring and evaluation framework , which the Scottish Government reports on annually.

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to significant uncertainty for transport, with future trends and people’s work and lifestyle choices difficult to forecast at this point in time. Subject to this uncertainty, we will publish a route-map that sets out how we will meet this target by the end of this year. This is a cross-government and sectoral effort – not all the policy levers and answers rest in transport.

The most direct levers on the attractiveness of buying or running a petrol or diesel car – fuel duty and vehicle excise duty – are reserved to the UK Government. Additionally, transport demand derives from other factors – where people live work, learn and access goods and services are all key to their need to travel. Meeting the commitment will involve reducing people’s need to travel with more local access to goods and services, digital connectivity and flexible and remote working approaches.

Regulations relating to the construction of road vehicles and tyres remain matters reserved to the UK Government.

The Scottish Government continues to monitor applied research into issues relating to zero emission vehicles, we have not yet conducted specific analysis in the potential increase in microplastic waste from electric vehicles.

The Scottish Government is aware there are still significant knowledge gaps to fill before it is possible to have a robust understanding of the risks posed by microplastics to the Scottish environment and we will play our part in filling these knowledge gaps.

As set out in our Programme for Government in 2020, we are working with local authorities, the deposit return scheme administrator and potential investors to explore options that will unlock reprocessing investments and to ensure that we manage more of our own waste within Scotland. This has included an assessment of volumes of materials, including plastics, collected for recycling.

We do not hold the data centrally to accurately report the proportion of plastics collected for recycling that are recycled.

Data on the materials processed at Materials Recovery Facilities, from sampling undertaken by SEPA, is available here: Recyclate quality | Scotland's environment web

We are continuing to work with local authorities to support high quality recycling, and taking steps to improve the quality of waste data. We are working with the UK Government, other devolved governments, and agencies such as SEPA, to develop and implement an electronic waste tracking system.

During 2020 the Scottish Government, in partnership with local authorities, MOD and veterans organisations, promoted and distributed Armed Forces and veterans awareness training to all local authorities in Scotland via the network of Armed Forces Champions. The e-learning is a simple, user-friendly resource which aims to raise awareness and understanding of the Armed Forces Covenant, how it is implemented in the community and how the principles should be applied at a local level. The training package also provides sources of further information and support for the Armed Forces and veterans community. Consideration is being given to expanding this across other front-line service providers including the NHS. We continue to engage with Champions and Local Authorities to determine the effectiveness of this training and ensure that it has been made available to frontline staff.

In addition, Veterans Scotland has received funding from the Forces in Mind Trust to enable engagement with decision makers in statutory and third sector organisations across Scotland. Through this engagement, supported by the Scottish Government, Veterans Scotland seeks both to inform partners about the needs of those preparing to leave the Armed Forces and of the veterans community and also to encourage those partners to ensure that they are equipped to meet their obligations under the Covenant. As part of this work, Veterans Scotland promotes and distributes e-copies of the Forces in Mind Trust’s ‘Our Community – Our Covenant’, an accessible tool that provides practical guidance.