Chamber and committees

We held a written consultation from May – June 2023 on proposed changes to night sights, ammunition weights and close seasons for male deer. The full Deer Management Round Table was invited to respond to this consultation. Responses will be published on the Scottish Government webpage imminently.

No. The Scottish Government understands that, for the purposes of the law of divorce, adultery is defined in the common law (case law) as voluntary heterosexual intercourse between a married person and a person who is not their spouse.

The issues relating to the legal definition of adultery were considered by the Scottish Government when the legislation introducing same sex marriage was prepared: Marriage and Civil Partnership Bill Policy Memorandum (paragraphs 127 to 143) .

The Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014 inserted section 1(3A) of the Divorce (Scotland) Act 1976 so that adultery has the same meaning for same sex marriages as for mixed sex marriages.

Our position remains unchanged: we have no plans to bring forward legislation to extend the definition of adultery.

A spouse seeking a divorce because of sexual infidelity which is not covered by the current legal definition of adultery can cite unreasonable behaviour or non-cohabitation to demonstrate the irretrievable breakdown of their marriage.

The Scottish Government is committed to the creation of a Scottish Veterinary Service (SVS) to ensure there are highly trained staff to provide Scotland with good animal health and food safety to meet all our needs across the public and private sector for animal health issues.

The Extension to the Review of Field Delivery of Animal Health Services in Scotland report, conducted by Professor Charles Milne, followed up on the earlier Field Delivery of Animal Health Services in Scotland, and was based on interviews with individual sand organisations involved in animal health services in Scotland and beyond.

A Programme has been established to manage the work required to create an SVS. The Programme continues to collect evidence on staff turnover and retention, career progression etc from organisations with different delivery models and in particular from Northern Ireland, where the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs provides an integrated veterinary service.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-20615 on 14 August 2023 which provided an update on the Scottish Government’s REM policy, including links to the publication of the outcome report from the consultation which ran from 15 March to 22 June 2022. That report can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781805256588

The REM consultation outcome report confirmed that legislation relating to the mandatory introduction of REM to all scallop dredge and large pelagic vessels fishing in Scottish waters, and to all Scottish scallop dredge and pelagic vessels fishing outwith Scottish waters, will be introduced to the Scottish Parliament in 2023.

The report also confirmed that further work will be undertaken to scope options for the wider use of REM in other fleet segments (specifically vessels in the demersal fleet with an overall length of 12 metres or more) but that this will be considered in conjunction with the development of the Scottish Government’s Future Catching Policy.

The Scottish Government has also published a consultation on extending vessel tracking and monitoring technology on under 12 meter commercial fishing vessels. The consultation documents can be found here: https://consult.gov.scot/marine-scotland/improving-inshore-fisheries-data/ The consultation closes on 7 November 2023.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-20615 on‎ 14 August 2023 which confirmed that the Scottish Government had launched a consultation seeking views on proposals to extend the tracking and monitoring requirement to under 12 metre commercial fishing vessels.

I urge all stakeholders to engage with this consultation, which closes on 7 November 2023. The consultation documents can be found here: https://consult.gov.scot/marine-scotland/improving-inshore-fisheries-data/

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Citizens’ Assembly for Scotland published its final report in January 2021. The Scottish Government published a detailed response on 23 November 2021. Since then, Scottish Government’s commitments on participatory and deliberative democracy have been developed through the Institutionalising Participatory and Deliberative Democracy (IPDD) working group, which published its recommendations on 25 March 2022. Scottish Government published a response to on 27 March 2023 and work is ongoing to deliver the commitments set out.

This work is included in the Citizens’ Participation and Public Petitions (CPPP) Committee’s scrutiny remit. Since Spring 2022, the CPPP Committee has been undertaking a Public Participation Inquiry – it will publish its final report in September 2023, and plans to follow this with a debate in Parliament.

The Scottish Government is committed to the creation of a Scottish Veterinary Service (SVS) to ensure there are highly trained staff to provide Scotland with good animal health and food safety to meet all our needs across the public and private sector for animal health issues.

A Programme has been established to manage the work required to create an SVS, which includes determining which functions the Service should deliver, and conducting a financial appraisal of the operational and investment costs of the Service.

All potential functions considered for future delivery by the SVS are already funded by the Scottish Government under a variety of arrangements. The financial appraisal will assess how consolidation under a single body provides opportunities to enhance quality, efficiency, resilience and value for money.

The Scottish Government is committed to the creation of a Scottish Veterinary Service (SVS) to ensure there are highly trained staff to provide Scotland with good animal health and food safety to meet all our needs across the public and private sector for animal health issues.

A Programme has been established to manage the work required to create an SVS, which includes conducting a financial appraisal of the operational and investment costs of the Service.

All potential functions considered for future delivery by the SVS are already funded by the Scottish Government under a variety of arrangements. Some of those functions already attract fees raised from industry, but it is too early to consider any new future charges.

The financial appraisal will assess how consolidation under a single body provides opportunities to enhance quality, efficiency, resilience and value for money.

The Scottish Government is committed to the creation of a Scottish Veterinary Service (SVS) to ensure there are highly trained staff to provide Scotland with good animal health and food safety to meet all our needs across the public and private sector for animal health issues. For that purpose, a Programme has been established to manage the work required to create an SVS.

The Extension to the Review of Field Delivery of Animal Health Services in Scotland report, conducted by Professor Charles Milne, followed up on the earlier Field Delivery of Animal Health Services in Scotland, and was based on interviews with individual sand organisations involved in animal health services in Scotland and beyond.

The SVS Programme is assessing which functions the SVS should deliver, including border checks. APHA is only responsibility for border checks on live animals, with Scottish Local Authorities responsible for checks on animal products.

Scottish Government Officials liaise regularly with the Animal and Plant health Agency, as well as Defra, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive officials to ensure that suitable arrangements are in place, in due course, to mitigate against any risks to animal health and welfare as a result of different arrangement for the delivery of veterinary controls in Scotland. It is impossible, however, to make effective plans for the delivery of border checks while the UK Government continues to delay the publication of the awaited UK Target Operating Model for Borders.

The Scottish Government is committed to the creation of a Scottish Veterinary Service (SVS) to ensure there are highly trained staff to provide Scotland with good animal health and food safety to meet all our needs across the public and private sector for animal health issues.

A Programme has been established to manage the work required to create an SVS, which includes conducting a financial appraisal of the operational and investment costs of the Service.

The financial appraisal will assess how consolidation under a single body provides opportunities to enhance quality, efficiency, resilience and value for money