Questions and answers

Question reference: S5W-35912

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 March 2021
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 19 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what monitoring of beaver control is in place, and how many beavers are known to have been killed in the calendar year 2020.

Question reference: S5W-35903

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 March 2021
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 19 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many licences authorising the removal of beaver dams in response to concerns regarding activities that were restricting the passage of fish were issued by NatureScot to (a) riparian and (b) land managers in the calendar year 2020, and how many licences were refused.

Question reference: S5W-36036

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 March 2021
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 18 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will extend the Food for Life programme to support the delivery of free school meals.

We will be working with our local authority partners to expand provision of universal free school meals to all primary children. The amended Regulations governing the nutritional requirements for food and drink served in schools will come into force on 8 April 2021, and all meals served as a part of our universal expansion programme will be required to meet these standards.

We have supported the Soil Association’s Food For Life Programme since 2012. Our support has helped 16 local authorities to achieve accreditation for their school meals under the Food for Life Served Here award framework. We will continue to support the Food for Life programme and encourage local authorities to sign up to it.

Question reference: S5W-35388

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 March 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 18 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will revise its model for determining whether cetaceans can be restored to, or maintained at, Favourable Conservation Status, in light of any evidence that measurements from field studies found a much greater area of disturbance than the model predicts.

Under Article 17 of the European Union (EU) Habitats Directive, the UK was required to assess and report on the conservation status of species listed in Annexes I, II, IV and V. The most recent report was submitted in 2019 and the UK assessments can be found on the Joint Nature Conservation Committee website. The assessments set out the criteria and data taken into account in determining whether or not a species is considered to be in Favourable Conservation Status.

See for details.

Regulation 3ZA of the Conservation (Natural Habitats) Regulations 1994 places a duty on Scottish Ministers to continue publishing assessments of conservation status every six years. There are no current plans to change the assessment methodology used.

Question reference: S5W-35306

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 February 2021
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 12 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether the outcome of the ScotWind offshore wind leasing round will be published before the COP26 conference in November 2021.

Question reference: S5W-35386

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 February 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 10 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has any plans to revise its model for determining whether cetaceans can be restored to, or maintained at, Favourable Conservation Status, in light of any evidence that almost all farms which use acoustic deterrent devices (ADDs), use multiple ADDS and that the time for hearing injury to occur at a certain distance decreases pro rata with the number of ADDs used.

Under Article 17 of the European Union (EU) Habitats Directive, the UK was required to assess and report on the conservation status of species listed in Annexes I, II, IV and V. The most recent report was submitted in 2019 and the UK assessments can be found on the Joint Nature Conservation Committee website. The assessments set out the criteria and data taken into account in determining whether or not a species is considered to be in Favourable Conservation Status. See for details

Regulation 3ZA of the Conservation (Natural Habitats) Regulations 1994 places a duty on Scottish Ministers to continue publishing assessments of conservation status every six years. There are no current plans to change the assessment methodology used.

Question reference: S5W-35385

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 February 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 10 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered (a) any evidence that the new generation of low frequency acoustic startle devices disturb and elicit the so-called startle reflex in (i) bottlenose dolphins and (ii) any cetacean, and (b) any evidence that the hearing thresholds of cetaceans and pinnipeds overlap.

There is currently only one acoustic startle device on the market. There is no empirical evidence on whether the acoustic startle device disturbs free ranging bottlenose dolphins or other cetaceans, although during field studies, harbour porpoise did not appear to avoid the device. The device operates at frequencies centred around 1 kHz and is designed to target seal hearing sensitivities. In a recent study using similar sounds, captive bottlenose dolphins were observed to be startled at this frequency, at sound source levels lower than the typical operating level of the device.

There is some overlap in the frequencies to which different marine mammal species are sensitive. Porpoises and dolphins have higher frequency hearing than seals, but overlap with seals at the lower end of their hearing range. Baleen whales (for example, minke whales) have lower frequency hearing than seals, but overlap with them at the upper end of their hearing range.

Question reference: S5W-35390

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 February 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 10 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government (a) for what reasons it has not published the European Protected Species (EPS) licence applications for fish farm acoustic deterrent devices (ADDs) submitted by the 15 January 2021 deadline for public scrutiny, but has published EPS licence applications for ADDs used for other purposes, (b) whether it will publish the EPS licence applications for fish farm ADDs, (c) how much time after publishing the EPS licence applications it will allow for public and scientific scrutiny, and (d) whether it still intends to complete the licencing process by 1 March 2021.

There are currently no applications for European Protected Species licences for the use of Acoustic Deterrent Devices at fish farms resulting from the review instigated last year by Marine Scotland. Marine Scotland will give due consideration to any European Protected Species licence applications that are submitted, based on the merits of each case.

In the spirit of openness and transparency, all EPS licences and applications will be placed in the public domain after a determination has been made.

Question reference: S5W-35394

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 February 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 10 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the salmon aquaculture sector in Scotland for the period October 2018 to September 2019 for (a) Cooke Aquaculture and (b) the Scottish Salmon Company in regard to how many farms (i) used acoustic deterrent devices (ADDs), (ii) did not use ADDs and (A) used either double skinned anti-predator nets or single nets of stronger, more rigid materials such as Seal Pro nets and (B) used traditional single nets.

The following table provides a breakdown of the number of sites using and not using ADDs and those using anti-predator nets, for the period October 2018 to September 2019, for Cooke Aquaculture and the Scottish Salmon Company.

Company name	Number of sites using ADDs	No of sites where ADDs are not used	Number of sites using anti-predator nets or Seal Pro nets (or equivalent)
Scottish Salmon Company	45	0	6
Cooke Aquaculture	0	35	35

Question reference: S5W-35389

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 February 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 10 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will revise its model for determining whether cetaceans can be restored to, or maintained at, Favourable Conservation Status, in light of any evidence that porpoises are not evenly distributed and that the habitats predicted to be of most importance to porpoises are also the areas where acoustic deterrent devices are used.

Under Article 17 of the European Union (EU) Habitats Directive, the UK was required to assess and report on the conservation status of species listed in Annexes I, II, IV and V. The most recent report was submitted in 2019 and the UK assessments can be found on the Joint Nature Conservation Committee website. The assessments set out the criteria and data taken into account in determining whether or not a species is considered to be in Favourable Conservation Status. See for details

Regulation 3ZA of the Conservation (Natural Habitats) Regulations 1994 places a duty on Scottish Ministers to continue publishing assessments of conservation status every six years. There are no current plans to change the assessment methodology used.

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