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Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) is currently considering a licence application from the South of Scotland Golden Eagle Project.

No other applications to allow juvenile raptors to be taken from Special Protection Areas intended for release have been received by SNH.

As membership of the European Bird Census (EBC) is not limited to EU members, the Scottish Government does not envisage Brexit having any impact on the European Bird Census (EBC) data gathering and sharing.

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) has an agreement with the Joint Nature Conservation Committee to continue to contribute to the funding of bird censuses in Scotland until at least 2021. This data will form part of the European Bird Census.

This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government or Police Scotland.

The wildlife Special Constable pilot scheme was launched in March 2018 and will conclude at the end of March 2019. Following the conclusion of the pilot an evaluation of the scheme and the contribution made by Special Constables in the Cairngorms National Park, will be undertaken by the Scottish Government, Police Scotland and the Cairngorms National Park Authority.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-21764 on 5 March 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at .

A Scottish Statutory Instrument, granting beavers European Protected Species status, was laid before the Scottish Parliament on Friday 22 February 2019. The legislation will come into force on 1 May 2019.

There is currently no monitoring of beaver control in place.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on how many beavers were killed during 2018 and 2019 as land managers were not obliged to record this information.

The Scottish Government is not seeking to prevent all lethal control of beavers in the period until European Protected Species status applies. The Scottish Government does however urge land managers and other to take note of SNH advice on the prevention and mitigation of adverse beaver impacts in this period, including taking note of the advice that killing of beavers should be a last resort.

The Scottish Government was sorry to hear of the deaths of four horses at Musselburgh Racecourse at a meeting on 3 December 2018. The Scottish Government takes the welfare of all animals very seriously; and is committed to the highest possible standards of welfare for all equines.

The Scottish Government has not held any discussions with the management at Musselburgh Racecourse or Scotland’s other racecourses regarding animal welfare at meetings following this incident.

Horse racing in Scotland is governed and regulated by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA). The BHA ensures racehorse welfare, including compliance with all aspects of the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) 2006 Act, through its Rules of Racing, the licensing and inspection of participants, education, training and monitoring.

The Scottish Government is aware that the BHA is carrying out a full investigation of the incident at Musselburgh and will monitor the findings of the BHA investigation upon their publication.

Horseracing is not specifically mentioned in the Scottish Government Code of Practice for the Welfare of Equidae. However, Paragraph 3 of the Code notes that the “Code covers all domesticated equidae for which a person is responsible, including all horses, ponies, donkeys and hybrids” meaning that the provisions of the Code would be equally applicable to racehorses as they would to other domesticated horses.