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The Scottish Government is committed to action to protect wildlife and to the effective monitoring of progress towards this goal. The Scottish Government has recently added a new single high level indicator to the National Performance Framework which measures trends in marine and terrestrial biodiversity in Scotland.

We have committed to introducing an ambitious new Biodiversity Strategy for Scotland within a year of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity Conference of the Parties (CoP15) and the publication of a new global biodiversity framework. Policies to take forward our commitment to tackle the nature crisis and methods to measure progress in this regard will be considered as part of the development of this Strategy and its supporting delivery plan.

This data is available on the Public Health Scotland Education Surveillance Dashboard which provides a three-weekly rolling average of hospital admissions for 2-17 years olds -

Equivalent weekly data for children under 2 years is not currently published however, data on Cumulative COVID-19 Hospital Admissions since the start of the pandemic is available and shows that as of 26 May 2021, 238 children between 0-4 years have been admitted to hospital with COVID-19 since March 2020. The full set of data can be found here - .

Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) and its predecessor Forest Enterprise Scotland (FES) has sold the following under the New Woodland Investment Programme (2021 - 2017) / Repositioning Programme (2007 – 2016). The figures in the following table include 6,598 hectares sold / transferred to communities and NGO’s under the National Forest Land Scheme and Community Asset Transfer Scheme:

Excluded are sales of ‘surplus’ assets, typically buildings and small parcels of land, sold under the Rationalisation policy.

The funds for disposals have been used for the following:

• Acquiring land for planting;
• Cost of woodland creation;
• Maintenance and management of new woodland creation;
• Starter Farms initiative;
• Transaction and programme costs both for acquisitions and disposals.

The New Woodland Investment programme was closed at the end of FY 20-21 and there will be no further land sales as part of the programme. Further acquisitions / residual obligations (to cover future costs as detailed above) remain to be discharged over the following four year period.

As announced as part of last year’s Capital Spending Review, FLS were allocated £30M of capital funding over the next five years (starting in FY 21-22) to purchase land for woodland creation and expansion of Scotland’s national forests and land.

The woodland sold by FLS / FES remains managed as woodland. Using the proceeds to subsequently purchase and plant additional land has ensured that the area of woodland in Scotland continues to increase.

On 2 June 2021 the Scottish Government announced a further‎ £62 million fund to assist eligible Taxi or Private Hire drivers and Private Hire and Taxi licence holders in Scotland with fixed costs.

In order to be eligible for payment of £1,500 from the Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Driver and Operator Support Fund, licensed Taxi or Private Hire drivers must hold a current local authority Taxi or Private Hire driver licence which is valid as of 3 June 2021 and have previously received an initial grant from the Taxi and Private Hire Driver Support Fund earlier in 2021.

As of 30 April 2021, over 21,800 drivers had been paid the initial grant from the Taxi and Private Hire Driver Support Fund. Local authorities are in the process of making automatic payments of the second £1,500 grant to eligible drivers, with many drivers already having received payment.

As at 30 April the Scottish Government has paid £32,725,500 to more than 21,800 taxi drivers through the Taxi and Private Hire Driver Support Fund. The Scottish Government recognised the continued financial challenges facing the sector and therefore taxi drivers who previously received a grant from the Taxi and Private Hire Driver Support Fund earlier in 2021 received a further grant of £1,500 taking support to a total of £3,000. We have allocated a further £62 million for taxi drivers and operators, bringing the total support for the taxi sector during the pandemic to more than £90 million.

The Scottish Government publishes statistics and management information relating to its Covid-19 business grants on its website at

The next update is scheduled to be published on 7 July 2021.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-00570 on‎ 21 June 2021. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at

The Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014 made a number of changes to the law on marriage and civil partnership, including in particular to allow same sex couples to marry. The marriage notice form and other registration forms were amended by the Registrar General for Scotland with consent of the Scottish Ministers, in consequence of these changes, by the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Prescribed Forms) (Scotland) Regulations 2014.

We wrote to 19 organisations, including three LGBTI organisations, to seek their views on the proposed changes to the registration forms before the Regulations were made. There were 18 responses to that consultation. These responses were not published.

I would be happy to write to the member with further information about this consultation and the outcomes, if desired.

The Scottish Government remains committed to modernising crofting law to make it more transparent, understandable and workable. This is a complex area of work and officials will continue to engage with key crofting stakeholders with issues for consideration being discussed with members of the Crofting Stakeholder Forum, the Law Society and others.

The timetable for crofting law reform is being considered as part of the Government’s wider legislative programme. In the meantime non-legislative administrative solutions will be sought wherever possible and work will continue with the Crofting Commission to bring crofts back into active use, aligned to actions in the National Development Plan.

The Scottish Government is committed to reducing water pollution at beaches across Scotland.

We do not know what water quality data range was used by Save on Energy, a price comparison website, to support its claim. They do not reflect the Scottish Environment Protection Agency’s bathing water classifications, which use statutory methods that are used across the UK and all EU member states.

Four of the seven Scottish beaches listed with the highest E.coli and intestinal enterococci in the Save on Energy survey are classified by SEPA as having ‘sufficient’ or better bathing water quality with one of these being rated as ‘excellent’. The three other beaches are receiving significant investment from Scottish Water totalling £23M in order to improve bathing water quality.

This bathing water season Scotland has more bathing waters rated as ‘excellent’, ‘good’ or ‘sufficient’ than at any point since tighter bathing water standards first came into force in 2015.

Preliminary data indicates that in the Delta wave we are seeing a cohort of younger people in hospital with Covid.

The risk of COVID-19 in young children remains low.