Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government agencies have held a number of discussions with Cairngorm Mountain Ltd (CML) on a proposed artificial ski slope on Cairngorm Mountain since the company proposed the initiative in June 2016. Staff in Highlands & Islands Enterprise will continue to be intensely involved with CML throughout the design, planning and implementation of this project, including looking at what kind of slope may be suitable.

An artificial ski slope may have a number of positive impacts on tourism in the local area. These include, but are not restricted to: increased (and new) visitors, staying longer in the area; additional employment; increased custom for a wide range of local tourism-related businesses, which will thus enhance their overall annual viability as well as giving those currently focused on the skiing season more year-round trade; an increased demand for housing; health benefits for the visitor; and assisting in building further the area’s evolving reputation as a centre of excellence for adventure and mountain sports.

The following table sets out the number of teachers trained since 2010 at Primary and Secondary level.

*Please note that Gaelic Immersion for Teachers (GIfT) Teachers are already qualified but choosing to switch to GM.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting parental choice for those interested in placing their children in Gaelic medium education and staff at every level are key to its success.

The document “Delivering Excellence and Equity in Scottish Education - A Deliver Plan for Scotland” committed us to “Developing a new route which is focused on getting high-quality graduates into priority areas and subjects.” This will go out to tender in August and within that specification bids are expected to address priority subjects such as Gaelic.

In addition, the Scottish Government is an active member of the National Gaelic Education Steering Group which allows partners including Bord na Gaidhlig, local authorities and universities to discuss the availability of teachers, ITE courses and the development of initiatives to support the sector. We understand the need to increase the variety of opportunities to enter Gaelic Medium Education teaching and continue to look at new routes, whether full-time, part-time or distance learning. We are also continuing to fund existing courses such as the Gaelic Immersion for Teachers (GIfT) and STREAP courses, both of which are designed to equip current teachers with the skills they need to transfer into Gaelic medium teaching.

The Scottish Government also wants to ensure that those who are interested in entering teacher training are supported and we currently fund the Gaelic Teacher Recruitment Officer post at Bòrd na Gidhlig. The post holder visits schools and career events to ensure those interested in a teaching career have the information they have to succeed and also provides support to students who are on their courses or placements. In addition, Bòrd na Gidhlig offer a variety of incentives to those interested in entering Gaelic Medium Education teaching and more information on routes in to the sector can be found at the dedicated Gaelic Teaching website www.teagasg.com. The current National Gaelic advertising campaign will be expanded in the coming year to appeal to Gaelic learners or prospective learners of the language.

Since 2009, the Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels (SSRS) Project led by the Scottish Wildlife Trust has co-ordinated grey squirrel control at a landscape scale in three project areas: North-East Scotland, the Central Lowlands and South Scotland. This work is undertaken by project conservation staff, Grey Squirrel Control Officers, Forestry Commission controllers working on the National Forest Estate, a network of landowners controlling grey squirrels on private forests and estates supported by Scottish Rural Development Programme funding, and up to 56 estates and over 200 individual volunteers operating traps via loans from the SSRS Project.

A new SSRS Project phase, ‘Developing Community Action’, is being supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund specifically to secure a long-term commitment to red squirrel protection. The additional funding for the next 5 years is intended to build capacity, skills and a sense of ownership of local red squirrel populations. In developing the new project, the SSRS Project has carried out market research, held community engagement workshops and stakeholder consultations and will be using this information to target communications to engage and sustain interest in the Project and its aims. A ‘Community Hub’ information management system will be developed for staff and volunteers, which will capture and integrate data from all sources and will allow feedback to be provided.

The current distribution and abundance of grey squirrels means that control and containment to minimise their impact are generally the only realistic options. The objectives of grey squirrel control co-ordinated through the Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels (SSRS) Project are to: eradicate grey squirrels from Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire within 10 years; to contain the northward spread of grey squirrels into the Highlands and Argyll by carrying out control from coast to coast across the ‘Highland Line’; and to control grey squirrels in identified priority areas for red squirrels in southern Scotland.

A Heritage Lottery Fund Award of £2.46 million has been secured for the next 5 years (until 2022) towards a total SSRS Project cost of £4.4 million. The title of this phase of the project is ‘Developing Community Action’. Actions under this phase are aimed at developing long-term red squirrel conservation and embedding this in land management and community action, with a move away from reliance on project funding. The project aims to build capacity, skills and a sense of ownership of local red squirrel populations.

Work on developing a grey squirrel immuno-contraceptive is also progressing with support from the UK Squirrel Accord signatories; including Scottish Natural Heritage and Scottish Government. Immuno-contraceptives have the potential to significantly reduce the need for and costs of ongoing grey squirrel control.

Squirrel sightings across Scotland are reported through the Scottish Squirrel Database, which has been managed by the Scottish Wildlife Trust since 2007.

The Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels (SSRS) Project also carries out annual presence/absence monitoring of red and grey squirrels in three project areas: North-East Scotland, the Central Lowlands and South Scotland. In North-East Scotland and the Central Lowlands, systematic monitoring has been carried out since 2011 and in South Scotland since 2013. Nearly 200 volunteers have been mobilised to carry out these surveys. A sample of 2km by 2km grid squares or “tetrads” are surveyed across each Project area. Within each tetrad four baited feeder boxes are permanently located in woodland. Each feeder box is checked by volunteers three times over a period of six weeks each spring. Hairs are identified under a microscope and each tetrad is consequently allocated to one of the following four categories: “red squirrels only”, “grey squirrels only”, “both species”, or “neither species”. Comparison of the same tetrads over time enables the detection of changes in squirrel distributions.

Since 2007, the Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels (SSRS) Project has been working to protect red squirrels in South Scotland from the emergence of squirrelpox virus which was first recorded in Scotland in 2005.

Between 2009 and 2012, the SSRS Project carried out an extensiveprogramme of squirrelpox surveillance and responsive grey squirrel control in an attempt to contain the virus in South Scotland. This comprised a project supported Conservation Officer and two Grey Squirrel Control Officers, Forestry Commission controllers working on the National Forest Estate and a network of landowner control in private forests and estates. Grey squirrel control on private land was initially funded under the Scottish Forestry Grant Scheme, which was superseded by the launch of the Scottish Rural Development Programme (SRDP) from 2009. A total of 102 estates in South Scotland were in receipt of five-year SRDP-funded contracts (2009-2014) for grey squirrel control.

In early 2013, SNH commissioned disease modelling to inform the SSRS Project’s control strategy. This work highlighted that targeted control could help slow the spread of the virus, but was unlikely to halt its spread in areas where grey squirrels are already established. However, the modelling also indicated that co-ordinated grey squirrel control may allow local populations of red squirrels to persist and recover after disease outbreaks. The Scottish Government funded squirrelpox surveillance across central Scotland in 2014. This work indicated that squirrelpox virus is not yet widespread in central Scotland. However, the finding of seropositive results over a number of years indicates that squirrelpox is circulating in local grey squirrel populations, with low levels of seroprevalence.

In April 2017, the SSRS Project started a new 5 year phase (SSRS-Developing Community Action) with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The work to protect priority populations in South Scotland in the presence of squirrelpox will continue and in the Central Lowlands the project will carry out co-ordinated grey squirrel control, squirrelpox surveillance, collaborative research and awareness raising with a view to preventing the northwards spread of grey squirrels and squirrelpox.

The Scottish Government’s approach to red squirrel conservation and grey squirrel control is set out in the Scottish Strategy for Red Squirrel Conservation (Scottish Squirrel Group 2015) produced by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and available at this link http://www.snh.gov.uk/docs/A1465416.pdf.

The strategy aims to maintain populations of red squirrels across their current range; to have well-defended, thriving and expanding red squirrel populations in all parts of the Highlands, Argyll, North-East Scotland, northern Tayside and Stirling where there are currently no grey squirrels; to see red squirrels recover their former range and secured for the long-term by the removal of the isolated population of grey squirrels in North-East Scotland; and to defend priority red squirrel populations from the threats of replacement by grey squirrels and from squirrelpox virus in Central and Southern Scotland where grey squirrels are already established.

The conservation actions to deliver these aims include reducing the competitive effects of grey squirrels on red squirrels by controlling grey squirrel numbers, managing the disease impacts on red squirrels, managing habitats, monitoring, and maintaining public support for red squirrel conservation.

The Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels (SSRS) Project has been the principal means of coordinating red squirrel protection in Scotland since 2009 and is aligned with the updated Scottish Strategy for Red Squirrel Conservation. The SSRS Project is supported by SNH funding and by Scottish Rural Development Programme funding of grey squirrel control on private land. A new project phase has just commenced with a particular aim of securing a long-term commitment to red squirrel protection.

The responses to the consultation have now been independently analysed. Those responses and an analysis report, available at

http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2017/06/5860 have been published this afternoon.