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Understanding the economic impact of any key marine sector is an important piece of evidence for marine policy makers and the Scottish Government considers evidence from many different sources in formulating policy. All evidence has a value and the Scottish Government are engaged on a number of research projects and working groups to improve the sustainability of Scottish aquaculture, to mitigate potential environmental impact and to support further blue economy developments. Our recently published research undertaken by Biggar Economics (2020) into the estimation of the wider economic impact of aquaculture found the sector and its wider supply chain is worth around £880 million in GVA and supports 11,700 jobs across the Scottish economy and is yet another key piece of evidence amongst that wider, and expanding, evidence base.

Between 25 August 2020 and 5 September 2020, 16 beavers have been trapped in Tayside under licence from NatureScot.

(a) One animal was re-released locally (relating to a licence to protect public infrastructure).

(b) Eleven have been released at five different projects in England. A further four animals are currently at a holding facility until trapping of the family group is completed. Following this, the families will be moved to another release project in England.

The projects in England include biodiversity enhancement, flood resilience and science, research and education.

The Scottish Government has not received any requests or expressions of interest from parties in England and Wales looking to acquire beavers.

Requests for the supply of beavers to populate projects in England and Wales do not routinely come directly to NatureScot. However, NatureScot works in collaboration with a beaver consultant and with Natural England and Natural Resources Wales.

The following projects have been granted release licences from Natural England, with NatureScot agreeing that animals can be sourced from Tayside.

An independent study (Poseidon, 2011, does fish farming impact on tourism in Scotland) found no stated impact, for the majority of respondents, on key recreational activities or on willingness to re-visit a site from aquaculture activity or from future expansion of aquaculture.

In 2014, we published the report An Assessment of the Benefits to Scotland of Aquaculture which in which the benefits of aquaculture to Scottish communities, human capital in terms of participation in employment, as well as the skills and experience which provide ‘employment security’ was found to be most important, with financial benefit in terms of income to local ancillary businesses (particularly transport and tourism) the second most important. Negative opinions were generally low and most often related to environmental impact.

A 2017 report on the value of aquaculture to Scotland found synergies between tourism and aquaculture (Imani, 2017, Value of Scottish Aquaculture 2017). Year-round employment offered by the aquaculture sector contributes to the sustainability of family livelihoods alongside the highly seasonal nature of tourism jobs. In a recent survey for Marine Scotland, over 93% of the employment in the aquaculture companies surveyed was permanent. (Biggar Economics, 2020, Estimates of the Wider Economic Impacts of the Aquaculture Sector in Scotland)

Competing claims on natural resources can occur which is why the development of regional marine plans and Scotland’s National Marine Plan is so valuable. Use of shared space is one of the priorities being explored as we look to develop the Government’s Blue Economy Action Plan. Diversification does bring benefits, both in increasing resilience to economic shocks and in sharing infrastructure such as access roads or enhanced berthing facilities in harbours.

The specification in the Franchise Agreement requires a minimum of two cycle spaces be provided on each service. This minimum requirement is currently met by all ScotRail passenger services.

There are 66 cycle spaces available daily on Highland Mainline services operated by ScotRail. A tabulated breakdown by rolling stock and service is available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 61836).

If the Parliament indicates its support for the general principles of the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Bill at Stage 1, then, as I set out to the Finance and Constitution Committee, I will be very happy to engage with the Parliament to explore the framework within which decisions about how the power in section 1 of that Bill to make regulations corresponding to EU law might be used. I expect that such a framework will be the product of agreement with the Parliament, and would be happy that as part of that agreement we seek the views of others.

St Kilda is one of six World Heritage Sites in Scotland and the only site which has mixed status as being of both natural and cultural value.

The islands of St Kilda are owned by the National Trust for Scotland, which has overall responsibility for management of the archipelago. The current Management Plan for St Kilda was developed, agreed and signed by the National Trust for Scotland and four other key partners who have a role in the management of the site (namely, Historic Scotland (now Historic Environment Scotland), Scottish Natural Heritage (now NatureScot), Comhairle nan Eilean Siar and the Ministry of Defence).

This question is therefore a matter for the National Trust for Scotland and other signatories, who will be better placed to advise on the Plan’s interaction with the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006.

The long term trend for woodland birds in Scotland is increasing, in contrast to the situation across the whole of the United Kingdom. The Index of Abundance for Scottish Terrestrial Breeding Birds, 1994 to 2018 (an Official Statistic for Scotland, accessible via the following link: ) shows that while there is a large amount of inter-annual variation, with sometimes abrupt decreases and increases between individual years, the woodland bird index trend increased by 58% from the start of the time series in 1994 to the most recent estimate in 2018.

The Environmental Protection (Restrictions on Use of Lead Shot) (Scotland) (No. 2) Regulations 2004 prohibit the use of lead shot with a shot gun on or over wetlands in Scotland, in order to prevent the ingestion of lead shot by wildfowl and other wading birds.