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The Scottish Government considers that the effect of the act on the protected feature in question could not have been reasonably avoided where the act of sea fishing complied with all current regulations in place. If, for example, damage is caused while fishing is carried out in a way that does not comply with current laws and regulations, it may be the case that the damage could have been reasonably avoided.

Previous advice from the Joint Nature Conservation Committee helped inform the voluntary restrictions. The advice states that "The offshore subtidal sands and gravels feature is broadly distributed across the site; we have no extra information available on the sensitivity of the feature which could inform where zones restricting demersal otter trawls and seines should be located".

The Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 does not apply in the Scottish Offshore Region. Details of the voluntary restrictions were made publicly available in Fishing News on 20 August 2019.

Section 125 of the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 applies to functions of public authorities, not to the authorisation of others to undertake certain activities. Therefore Section 125 does not apply to fishing.

Potential trawl marks were seen on a number of video tows from a survey carried out in August/September 2019. Analyses of the survey data are ongoing.

The Scottish Government meets with officials from the Health and Safety Executive on both a regular and ad hoc basis across various portfolios for a number of purposes.

We are following developments at the site closely and this has included contact with HSE at official level on a number of occasions to understand the actions they are taking at the plant.

The Health and Safety Executive is an Executive Non-Departmental Public Body of the UK Department for Work and Pensions. It operates with staff based across the UK who liaise with the Scottish Government as and when appropriate on devolved matters.

The principle of ‘one substance, one registration’ is a core principle underpinning EU REACH. In preparation for EU exit, we have agreed to UK wide legislation which ensures that this principle and therefore the capacity for submission of joint registrations will be retained in the UK REACH regime and will help reduce the amount of testing required to demonstrate safe use and management of a given chemical.

The Scottish Government cannot influence the terms under which data currently used for the purposes of EU REACH registrations can be accessed by UK companies in order to support their registrations under UK REACH. This is a matter for commercial negotiations. We would encourage industry to share data as much as practically possible to increase transparency and awareness of the benefits and risks of the substances in their products.

We understand Defra is currently working with key trade associations to develop data sharing guidance which will be used to develop future data sharing arrangements.

The Scottish Government’s Third Report on Proposals and Policies 2018-2032 (the ‘Climate Change Plan’) will be updated within 6 months of the Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Bill receiving Royal Assent.

The update will set out the pathway to the emissions reduction target for 2032 of 78% reduction from baseline levels, as agreed by the Parliament at Stage 3 of the Bill on 25 September 2019.

Information on the megatonnes savings will be set out in the updated Plan itself. The precise figure for this will reflect the percentage reduction target (as above) and also, as set out in the answer to question S5W-25443 on 24 September 2019; i) the excess emissions from the missed annual target for 2017, and ii) the best available evidence on future technical changes to the greenhouse gas inventory, in areas such as peatlands, where the UK Government has committed to implementing updated international guidelines.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at .

Stakeholder engagement has already taken place across parts of Scotland to inform the Second Strategic Transport Projects Review. Advance work on the review, over the last two years, in the Scottish Borders, Dumfries and Galloway and in the North East has resulted in over 8000 public and stakeholder responses to three separate and focused on-line surveys.

A wider national on-line public survey is due to be conducted this autumn, with this survey being informed by the outputs from 530 stakeholders who have taken part in 30 stakeholder workshops across the whole of Scotland. The results of this survey and those of stakeholders will assist in the validation of extensive data analysis being undertaken by consultants into the transport network problems and opportunities.

In addition, eleven Regional Transport Working Groups have been established across the country to assist is taking forward the review. These groups include representation from a range of local authority officers, including transportation, planning and economic development departments, together with Regional Transport Partnerships covered by the region.