Seòmar agus comataidhean

The purpose of the bill is to tackle the nature emergency. We should be in no doubt that, sadly, Scotland is a nature-depleted country. However, the green shoots of recovery are everywhere—from beaver-built wetlands to urban meadows that are teeming with pollinators and people. I pay tribute to the communities, conservationists and land managers who have made so much progress over the years. I hope that the bill will turbocharge their future efforts.

Before returning to Holyrood, I sat on the Scottish biodiversity forum as a representative of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities. At that time—more than a decade ago—I saw inertia and inaction. There were no targets. There were no action plans. I am proud that, in this session of Parliament, my colleague Lorna Slater, as a minister, rebooted the biodiversity strategy and set the wheels in motion for the bill. It is right that the international commitments that she signed us up to at the biodiversity conference of the parties are now enshrined in the bill, and I am delighted that her amendment to achieve that has passed into the bill.

Tonight, we will agree on the requirement for action-focused targets to get on to a faster track to restoring nature. That will need a degree of flexibility in how sites are designated if we are to realise the much bolder ambition of landscape-scale restoration. However, a case for the wholesale reform of regulations at the backbone of nature protection was not made by either the Government or stakeholders. It is right that the ministerial powers to amend those laws in part 2 of the bill were removed. We have seen at Westminster the threat to the environment from the watering down of nature law. That must not happen here, either now or in the future.

However, if there is a case for more precise surgery on the habitats and environmental assessment regulations, it will be for a future Government to bring those proposals back to the chamber. In the meantime, the cabinet secretary’s commitments to update the guidance are welcome. That will provide the clarity that will be needed if we are to get on with the job of nature restoration at scale.

It is clear that we cannot deliver a full-scale restoration of our woodlands and peatlands without properly managing deer to finally bring their numbers down permanently. In part 4 of the bill we now have reforms that give NatureScot and land managers the best chance of delivering the action that is needed for us, at last, to get to sustainable deer numbers. However, there is still more work to be done to roll out the recommendations of the independent deer working group. We must continue to work hard to realise the legacy of Simon Pepper and his colleagues. The group did incredible work back in 2017, and I say to the minister that there is still work to be done on that aspect.

I hope that, in time, parts 1 and 4 of the bill will prove to be transformational. Thankfully, part 2 is gone. For me, part 3, on national parks, represents unfinished business. It feels as though the Government wants to keep the lid on national parks at a time when we need them more than ever if we are to deliver the right opportunities for people and nature in some of the most sensitive landscapes that we have in Scotland.

The big lesson is that we need political leadership, and I am not just talking about from whoever happens to be the minister at the time. We need leadership on the ground, and we need people who back national parks in their communities to stick their heads above the parapet and say, “This is going to be good for our communities.” I live in a national park area, and I see its advantages every day.

There was clearly an appetite from communities across Scotland for more parks, and there was a quiet confidence that we were going to get them. That is not going to go away, despite NFU Scotland’s campaigning. All politicians need to recognise that.

In my closing remarks I will turn to some of the amendments that have strengthened the bill. For now, though, I say that Scottish Greens will be very happy to vote for the bill at stage 3.

17:27

I need to make progress.

There is unfinished business in that regard. Although that is not part of the bill that I have introduced, which is narrowly drawn, the Scottish Government must certainly do work on that.

To answer Tim Eagle’s point about the existence of the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006, I would say that that has not been effective. It has been extremely difficult to prosecute for “unnecessary suffering”, because greyhound racing is an inherently lawful activity. He points to licensing being the way forward, but licensing is the problem. We have licensed greyhound racing at the moment, and injuries and deaths are happening on licensed tracks as well as on unlicensed tracks. It is just not the case that licensing will be a solution.

I see that time is moving on, Presiding Officer, so I will conclude. There is an opportunity for MSPs to be on the right side of history tonight. If there are members such as Rhoda Grant, Davy Russell, Finlay Carson and Tim Eagle who want to see a resurgence of greyhound racing in Scotland, with all the resultant injury and death to dogs, they are free to vote against the bill and to send a signal for racing to start up again and expand in Scotland. I point to the comments of the owner of the Thornton greyhound racing track, who has said that the only reason why he has not expanded greyhound racing at the track is because of the campaign and the bill. Those are the only things that are preventing greyhound racing from expanding in Scotland.

For the rest of us, who want to end the suffering of the dogs, let us vote for the bill at stage 1. Let us get the ban over the line before dissolution.

I thank all members for their wide-ranging contributions. I note the contributions from Mr Carson, who has spent quite a lot of the debate bolstering what was a minority view in the committee, rather than the view of the majority of committee members, who accept that there is an evidence base to push ahead with a ban.

I thank all the members who have spoken in favour of the ban and my bill—Gillian Mackay, Christine Grahame, John Mason, Rona Mackay and Maggie Chapman. I thank other members who have not been able to speak but who are deeply passionate about the issue, have engaged with the evidence—unfortunately, it appears that Mr Russell has not done so—and have concluded that we absolutely need to ban greyhound racing. Their personal support for me and for the work that my team and I have done on the bill has been superb over the past few years.

I am saddened that some members still feel that there is insufficient evidence. I am absolutely dripping in evidence—evidence that has come to the committee and to the Parliament over years and years, including from the industry itself. The saddening figures that come out every year detailing the injuries and deaths represent real dogs. It is incredibly sad to see that evidence coming in. We have also had the testimony of people such as me and hundreds of others across Scotland who have rehomed greyhounds and seen the long-term impact of injury and trauma on those dogs.

It is fair to say, on the issue of licensed or unlicensed tracks, that the committee had no evidence to show that the inherent risk of racing greyhounds at an unlicensed track was lower than that of racing a dog at a licensed track.

It makes no difference to the dog who the owner of a greyhound racing track is. The laws of physics do not magically change if the dog races at a track at Thornton, Newcastle or anywhere else. The evidence is the evidence, and the minister pointed to the scientific studies that show the impact on the dogs and how it results in injury and death.

A number of members have raised the prospect of the activity going underground, but we can see a greyhound track from space. These are fast dogs that need big spaces in which to race. If the bill is passed, ministers will have the power, should they choose to use it, to define a track. Rhoda Grant’s suggestion that we will suddenly have figure-of-eight racetracks—a kind of Scalextric for greyhounds—is bizarre. I am not sure what would happen when they crossed over in the middle. That is fantasy stuff. The bill is well defined, and ministers would have the power to define a track, should they need to.

Members have spoken of concerns about dogs that are being kennelled and traded in Scotland and then being taken over the border to England.

I am very proud to bring to the chamber a bill that gives us a momentous opportunity to end greyhound racing in Scotland and the suffering that those wonderful dogs face.

I acknowledge the hard work that it has taken to get here—of my staff, the non-Government bills unit and the tireless campaigners and members of the public who have consistently highlighted the suffering of greyhounds. Some of those people are in the public gallery this afternoon. I also thank the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee for its scrutiny of the issue over a number of years; the Scottish Government for its constructive approach to considering the bill as it has evolved; and members of all parties in the Parliament for their support.

The bill is necessary and long overdue. Scotland is considered a world leader in animal welfare, but it is one of only eight countries where commercial greyhound racing is still legal. Of those eight countries, New Zealand, Wales, the US and the state of Tasmania are in the process of introducing bans on the activity.

We have a unique opportunity to end this dangerous activity. There is huge public support for such a measure, and the industry is in decline. My bill was inspired, in part, by petition PE1758, which was brought to the Parliament by Scotland Against Greyhound Exploitation and signed by more than 30,000 members of the public. It is clear that greyhound racing is no longer welcome in Scotland. Polling shows that 68 per cent of Scots back the proposed ban.

The risk of injury and death is embedded in the design of greyhound racing. Greyhound racing on oval tracks is inherently dangerous. Racing at speeds of up to 40mph on an oval track exerts excessive force on the left fore and right hind limbs, leading to leg breaks and injury in the dogs. Collisions often occur at the first curve of the track due to the impacts of centrifugal force and the dogs bunching to keep the lure in their sight. Dogs collide with one another or the fencing, or stumble, resulting in catastrophic injuries that have lifelong impacts that are rarely seen in other dogs.

Many members have had the pleasure of meeting Sasha, an ex-racing dog who has visited Parliament on a number of occasions. Members might have noticed that Sasha has a limp and wears a shoe on her back right foot. That is because Sasha fell hard on the first bend of a trial race, resulting in her leg being broken in several places and leaving her with a permanently misshapen leg and paw. Her trainer was talked into surrendering her to a charity for further care and rehoming, rather than simply euthanising her. That injury was completely preventable and is exactly what the bill will put an end to in Scotland.

The sport is administered by the Greyhound Board of Great Britain, whose own data shows the inherent evidence-based risk of injury and fatality. Between 2017 and 2024, there have been more than 1,000 trackside deaths and more than 30,000 injuries across the United Kingdom, and, in 2024, there was an increase in the number of track fatalities.

There is no legal requirement for independent tracks such as Thornton—the only track that is left in Scotland—to record or publish data relating to fatalities and injuries. However, the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission has stated that there is no reason to believe that the risks at unlicensed tracks in Scotland are any different from or less than those at tracks elsewhere in the UK. Thornton, the last remaining track in Scotland, is nearly identical in size and track surface to the licensed track at Shawfield, at which there were 197 injuries and 15 deaths between 2018 and 2020, when it closed.

Some members will be thinking, “Why do we need this bill if the industry is in decline in Scotland and there is no active racing?” However, if the bill is not passed, there will be nothing to prevent greyhound racing from restarting, which would put more greyhounds at significant risk of injury and death. That is exactly what happened in Wales. The unlicensed Valley track in Wales became GBGB registered in 2023, racing increased fourfold and more dogs were injured as a result. Whether it is one or 100 greyhounds, that unnecessary harm should not be allowed to happen. Only by ending greyhound racing permanently can we ensure that that suffering ends.

I move,

That the Parliament agrees to the general principles of the Greyhound Racing (Offences) (Scotland) Bill.

My bill will achieve that by making it illegal for a person knowingly to use or permit the use of greyhounds in racing at race tracks. The offences set out in the bill cover oval tracks and therefore apply to racing at licensed and independent tracks, and they relate to any racing activity, such as races, timed trials and sales trials. Given that all race tracks in Scotland are oval, the bill should ensure that no further racing takes place. However, it also includes a provision that would allow Scottish ministers to regulate to include other types of tracks if they were to be opened and deemed to pose a risk to greyhound welfare. Should someone be convicted of an offence, they could be subject to a fine or prison sentence and might have other penalties imposed on them, such as being prevented from owning a greyhound.

My bill is tightly drawn, with the clear aim of ending the suffering that is caused directly by racing on oval tracks. However, I share wider concerns in relation to breeding, kennelling and transportation of dogs to tracks outside Scotland, and I encourage wider work by the Scottish Government, separate to the bill, to address those concerns. As long as greyhound racing remains legal, we will see injuries and deaths. I urge members to support the general principles of the bill. Let us take that first and critical step to ending the suffering of greyhounds in Scotland.

16:01

I take the opportunity to thank the clerks of the committee, my fellow committee members, the Scottish Parliament information centre and all the witnesses who gave evidence. In particular, I thank members of Scottish Environment LINK and RSPB Scotland, which organisations bring considerable expertise and wisdom as conservationist land managers and policy specialists.

The bill has been a single opportunity to make progress in this parliamentary session to tackle the nature emergency, but we need another bill in the next session. It is clear in areas such as clean water that we are falling out of alignment with the European Union—we are way behind on that. It is also clear that in how we reform the management of our seas, coastal waters and fisheries, we are slipping behind the rest of Europe and, sadly, we are slipping behind England as well. We have seen frustrations from coastal communities being reflected in many of the amendments to the bill that have been lodged at stage 2 and stage 3.

I point to amendments from Ariane Burgess and Sarah Boyack that tried to fill a huge gap in the bill, but there was not time to unpack all that. Finlay Carson made a good point—although he perhaps did not make a good point about greyhounds earlier on—about the gap in marine management that will have to be filled in the next session if we are to have a hope of moving forward.

On deer management, at this point I am not entirely sure what the minister’s national venison food supply chain management plan will look like. There are still questions in my mind about who will be setting the ambition. Will it be NatureScot or Sainsbury’s? I am watching to see whether the plan will align with the recommendation of the independent deer working group.

On national parks, as I said earlier, the Government needs to be in a position to feel confident in leading a debate on national parks, and to feel confident in celebrating national parks, in expanding them and in designating new parks. A good basis for doing that in the next session of Parliament will be for the Parliament to review what has happened with national parks and the benefits that have been delivered over the 20 years since their establishment, and to explore some of the misinformation in the public narrative around national parks.

We should value national parks and empower them to protect our environment more and to support the communities that live in them. Earlier, we talked about lessons. There are certainly lessons from the Flamingo Land debacle, which I do not think have been fully reflected into the bill; however, those lessons will need to be learned.

We have seen progress on many individual issues in the bill. I appreciate that that was a challenge, because many of those issues were not part of the original bill, and it has been a challenge for committees to scrutinise them. On swift bricks, Holyrood showed how it can be fleet of foot. It has taken four years of trying at Westminster to get action on the issue, and it has still not achieved it. We have managed to do it in a matter of weeks through having a consensual conversation. It shows how devolution can work well to make progress on these islands.

I am pleased that my colleague Ariane Burgess got through the amendment to incorporate Ramsar sites in the bill. That will certainly be welcomed by her constituents at Coul links.

I am also pleased that the minister, Jim Fairlie, managed to finally close the loophole on grouse moor licensing. It is important that the licensed area moves beyond the narrow area where shooting takes place to where raptor species nest. I have been working on and highlighting that campaign since the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill. It is great that the minister has found a robust solution to that in this bill.

Many more issues have been dealt with and many more issues have been raised, which I hope will be dealt with in the future.

The Greens absolutely support the Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill at stage 3. It is an important foundation for further action to tackle the nature emergency, but there is so much more that needs to come.

17:49

I do not have time—I have a lot to get through.

In addition, if we do not ban greyhound racing in Scotland, dogs will come from England, Wales and Ireland to race in Scotland, so I am concerned about those dogs, too.

We can only legislate for Scotland. I would love greyhound racing to be banned in Newcastle and Sunderland, but we are in the Scottish Parliament. If Rhoda Grant wants greyhound racing to be banned across the UK, she should speak to her colleagues in Wales, who are pushing a bill through right now to achieve that in Wales, and she should speak to her UK Government colleagues, who have the opportunity to do the same at Westminster.

The one thing that I would pick up in regard to the Welsh Government’s work on the issue is that it has made a commitment to review wider licensing of the transport, kennelling and breeding of greyhounds. That is an area on which the Scottish Government should work with the Welsh Government.

I am very proud to bring to the chamber a bill that gives us a momentous opportunity to end greyhound racing in Scotland and the suffering that those wonderful dogs face.

I acknowledge the hard work that it has taken to get here—of my staff, the non-Government bills unit and the tireless campaigners and members of the public who have consistently highlighted the suffering of greyhounds. Some of those people are in the public gallery this afternoon. I also thank the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee for its scrutiny of the issue over a number of years; the Scottish Government for its constructive approach to considering the bill as it has evolved; and members of all parties in the Parliament for their support.

The bill is necessary and long overdue. Scotland is considered a world leader in animal welfare, but it is one of only eight countries where commercial greyhound racing is still legal. Of those eight countries, New Zealand, Wales, the US and the state of Tasmania are in the process of introducing bans on the activity.

We have a unique opportunity to end this dangerous activity. There is huge public support for such a measure, and the industry is in decline. My bill was inspired, in part, by petition PE1758, which was brought to the Parliament by Scotland Against Greyhound Exploitation and signed by more than 30,000 members of the public. It is clear that greyhound racing is no longer welcome in Scotland. Polling shows that 68 per cent of Scots back the proposed ban.

The risk of injury and death is embedded in the design of greyhound racing. Greyhound racing on oval tracks is inherently dangerous. Racing at speeds of up to 40mph on an oval track exerts excessive force on the left fore and right hind limbs, leading to leg breaks and injury in the dogs. Collisions often occur at the first curve of the track due to the impacts of centrifugal force and the dogs bunching to keep the lure in their sight. Dogs collide with one another or the fencing, or stumble, resulting in catastrophic injuries that have lifelong impacts that are rarely seen in other dogs.

Many members have had the pleasure of meeting Sasha, an ex-racing dog who has visited Parliament on a number of occasions. Members might have noticed that Sasha has a limp and wears a shoe on her back right foot. That is because Sasha fell hard on the first bend of a trial race, resulting in her leg being broken in several places and leaving her with a permanently misshapen leg and paw. Her trainer was talked into surrendering her to a charity for further care and rehoming, rather than simply euthanising her. That injury was completely preventable and is exactly what the bill will put an end to in Scotland.

The sport is administered by the Greyhound Board of Great Britain, whose own data shows the inherent evidence-based risk of injury and fatality. Between 2017 and 2024, there have been more than 1,000 trackside deaths and more than 30,000 injuries across the United Kingdom, and, in 2024, there was an increase in the number of track fatalities.

There is no legal requirement for independent tracks such as Thornton—the only track that is left in Scotland—to record or publish data relating to fatalities and injuries. However, the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission has stated that there is no reason to believe that the risks at unlicensed tracks in Scotland are any different from or less than those at tracks elsewhere in the UK. Thornton, the last remaining track in Scotland, is nearly identical in size and track surface to the licensed track at Shawfield, at which there were 197 injuries and 15 deaths between 2018 and 2020, when it closed.

Some members will be thinking, “Why do we need this bill if the industry is in decline in Scotland and there is no active racing?” However, if the bill is not passed, there will be nothing to prevent greyhound racing from restarting, which would put more greyhounds at significant risk of injury and death. That is exactly what happened in Wales. The unlicensed Valley track in Wales became GBGB registered in 2023, racing increased fourfold and more dogs were injured as a result. Whether it is one or 100 greyhounds, that unnecessary harm should not be allowed to happen. Only by ending greyhound racing permanently can we ensure that that suffering ends.

I move,

That the Parliament agrees to the general principles of the Greyhound Racing (Offences) (Scotland) Bill.

My bill will achieve that by making it illegal for a person knowingly to use or permit the use of greyhounds in racing at race tracks. The offences set out in the bill cover oval tracks and therefore apply to racing at licensed and independent tracks, and they relate to any racing activity, such as races, timed trials and sales trials. Given that all race tracks in Scotland are oval, the bill should ensure that no further racing takes place. However, it also includes a provision that would allow Scottish ministers to regulate to include other types of tracks if they were to be opened and deemed to pose a risk to greyhound welfare. Should someone be convicted of an offence, they could be subject to a fine or prison sentence and might have other penalties imposed on them, such as being prevented from owning a greyhound.

My bill is tightly drawn, with the clear aim of ending the suffering that is caused directly by racing on oval tracks. However, I share wider concerns in relation to breeding, kennelling and transportation of dogs to tracks outside Scotland, and I encourage wider work by the Scottish Government, separate to the bill, to address those concerns. As long as greyhound racing remains legal, we will see injuries and deaths. I urge members to support the general principles of the bill. Let us take that first and critical step to ending the suffering of greyhounds in Scotland.

16:01

I take the opportunity to thank the clerks of the committee, my fellow committee members, the Scottish Parliament information centre and all the witnesses who gave evidence. In particular, I thank members of Scottish Environment LINK and RSPB Scotland, which organisations bring considerable expertise and wisdom as conservationist land managers and policy specialists.

The bill has been a single opportunity to make progress in this parliamentary session to tackle the nature emergency, but we need another bill in the next session. It is clear in areas such as clean water that we are falling out of alignment with the European Union—we are way behind on that. It is also clear that in how we reform the management of our seas, coastal waters and fisheries, we are slipping behind the rest of Europe and, sadly, we are slipping behind England as well. We have seen frustrations from coastal communities being reflected in many of the amendments to the bill that have been lodged at stage 2 and stage 3.

I point to amendments from Ariane Burgess and Sarah Boyack that tried to fill a huge gap in the bill, but there was not time to unpack all that. Finlay Carson made a good point—although he perhaps did not make a good point about greyhounds earlier on—about the gap in marine management that will have to be filled in the next session if we are to have a hope of moving forward.

On deer management, at this point I am not entirely sure what the minister’s national venison food supply chain management plan will look like. There are still questions in my mind about who will be setting the ambition. Will it be NatureScot or Sainsbury’s? I am watching to see whether the plan will align with the recommendation of the independent deer working group.

On national parks, as I said earlier, the Government needs to be in a position to feel confident in leading a debate on national parks, and to feel confident in celebrating national parks, in expanding them and in designating new parks. A good basis for doing that in the next session of Parliament will be for the Parliament to review what has happened with national parks and the benefits that have been delivered over the 20 years since their establishment, and to explore some of the misinformation in the public narrative around national parks.

We should value national parks and empower them to protect our environment more and to support the communities that live in them. Earlier, we talked about lessons. There are certainly lessons from the Flamingo Land debacle, which I do not think have been fully reflected into the bill; however, those lessons will need to be learned.

We have seen progress on many individual issues in the bill. I appreciate that that was a challenge, because many of those issues were not part of the original bill, and it has been a challenge for committees to scrutinise them. On swift bricks, Holyrood showed how it can be fleet of foot. It has taken four years of trying at Westminster to get action on the issue, and it has still not achieved it. We have managed to do it in a matter of weeks through having a consensual conversation. It shows how devolution can work well to make progress on these islands.

I am pleased that my colleague Ariane Burgess got through the amendment to incorporate Ramsar sites in the bill. That will certainly be welcomed by her constituents at Coul links.

I am also pleased that the minister, Jim Fairlie, managed to finally close the loophole on grouse moor licensing. It is important that the licensed area moves beyond the narrow area where shooting takes place to where raptor species nest. I have been working on and highlighting that campaign since the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill. It is great that the minister has found a robust solution to that in this bill.

Many more issues have been dealt with and many more issues have been raised, which I hope will be dealt with in the future.

The Greens absolutely support the Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill at stage 3. It is an important foundation for further action to tackle the nature emergency, but there is so much more that needs to come.

17:49

I need to make progress.

There is unfinished business in that regard. Although that is not part of the bill that I have introduced, which is narrowly drawn, the Scottish Government must certainly do work on that.

To answer Tim Eagle’s point about the existence of the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006, I would say that that has not been effective. It has been extremely difficult to prosecute for “unnecessary suffering”, because greyhound racing is an inherently lawful activity. He points to licensing being the way forward, but licensing is the problem. We have licensed greyhound racing at the moment, and injuries and deaths are happening on licensed tracks as well as on unlicensed tracks. It is just not the case that licensing will be a solution.

I see that time is moving on, Presiding Officer, so I will conclude. There is an opportunity for MSPs to be on the right side of history tonight. If there are members such as Rhoda Grant, Davy Russell, Finlay Carson and Tim Eagle who want to see a resurgence of greyhound racing in Scotland, with all the resultant injury and death to dogs, they are free to vote against the bill and to send a signal for racing to start up again and expand in Scotland. I point to the comments of the owner of the Thornton greyhound racing track, who has said that the only reason why he has not expanded greyhound racing at the track is because of the campaign and the bill. Those are the only things that are preventing greyhound racing from expanding in Scotland.

For the rest of us, who want to end the suffering of the dogs, let us vote for the bill at stage 1. Let us get the ban over the line before dissolution.