Seòmar agus comataidhean

Mink is the link.

I will speak first to my amendment 13, which seeks to remove section 5, which is on the exception that allows one dog to be used for the

“management of foxes and mink below ground”.

I thank Colin Smyth for supporting the amendment.

Our committee received evidence from the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals on the consequences of sending dogs underground to flush foxes, which included pictures that show dogs and foxes with horrific injuries and disfigured faces, and written evidence about wild animals

“screaming in terror and pain as they were torn apart by dogs”.

How is that compatible with the bill’s pursuit of the highest standards of animal welfare? Dog fighting is illegal in Scotland, so it should be illegal to send a dog underground where there is suspected to be a fox.

My amendments 1, 3, 5 and 7 are consequential to amendment 13. They would simply remove all references to section 5 from sections 1 and 2.

Jenni Minto’s amendments in the group seek to remove mink from the exception, which would mean that it would be an offence to use a dog below ground to search for or flush mink. I will support her amendments 162 to 167, but I urge the committee to also vote for my amendment 13, which would remove the need for those amendments.

Colin Smyth’s amendment 117 stipulates that a fox or a mink that is brought or chased up from below ground by a dog must be shot immediately rather than killed in another way. I will support that amendment.

I will not support Edward Mountain’s amendments 73 to 76 and 81 to 96, or Rachael Hamilton’s amendments 212, 214, 216, 221, 222 and 225. Edward Mountain’s amendments seek to add four other wild animals to the list of animals that can be legally hunted by sending a dog below ground.

Rachael Hamilton’s amendment 220 specifies that

“a wild mammal which is being searched for or flushed is flushed as soon as reasonably possible after it is located”.

However, that could be used as a justification for using more than two dogs to flush the animal more quickly.

Rachael Hamilton’s amendment 224 would require, among other things, reasonable steps to be taken to prevent injury to the dog that is used underground. I am concerned that its provisions could be used as an excuse to send two dogs underground so that they could flush the fox more quickly.

Accordingly, I urge the committee to support amendments 1, 3, 5, 7 and 13. I also ask the committee to support the amendments of Jenni Minto and Colin Smyth, but to vote against the other amendments in the group.

I move amendment 1.

We have a couple more minutes, so I ask whether there is anything that we have not covered that you want us to hear, Rosemary. In your opening statement, you raised concerns about the increasing complexity of the legislative landscape and said that that could become more labyrinthine for users. Would you like to raise anything on that or on any other issue, so that we are aware of it?

We turn to agenda item 3, which is evidence as part of our ongoing work on understanding barriers to participation in local politics.

The Scottish Government recently published its report, following a demographic survey of local election candidates, and we are joined today by Scottish Government officials Arfan Iqbal, who is the principal researcher in constitution, international and migration analysis, and Maria McCann, who is the head of the elections team. I welcome our witnesses to the meeting. Before we turn to questions from members, I invite Maria to make a short opening statement.

Thank you very much, Maria. We now turn to questions from the committee. I will begin by asking about the overall process. Can you describe to the committee how the data was collected, the project timetable and the roles of local authorities, political parties and the Scottish Government in the data-collection process?

I want to pick up on that, Maria, because you have said a number of times that you do not want to do the survey again on a voluntarily basis. You have asked us, but have you got any thoughts? As a candidate, I would be thinking that I have to fill in papers that I then take to wherever—I cannot remember the name. There are papers that candidates must fill in, so is there something that we could provide so that, when they fill in the papers to register as a candidate, they also give the other information?

That concludes our questions. Is there anything else that you want to make sure that we hear?

Thanks for getting that detail on the record, Willie. I should also point out that we have heard that, in a few days’ time, the delay will be eight months. We hope that, month on month, the delay will become less and less as you get additional resources to take on the work.

I call Marie McNair.

I call Willie Coffey, who has a number of questions.

I was interested in your comment that it might be time for a refresh of the model complaints handling approach.

I call Paul McLennan.