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The Scottish Government’s Guidance on due diligence: human rights sets out recommendations on how we, our executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies should undertake appropriate due diligence on companies, including their human rights record, before entering into an investment relationship with them.

As the guidance makes clear, this should include an assessment of whether an individual or company, including any parent or subsidiary, has been associated with human rights abuses anywhere in the world.

It is for the Accountable Officer of each agency and non-departmental public body to ensure that their organisation complies with guidance issued by Scottish Ministers.

In operationalising the Scottish Government guidance, Scottish Enterprise’s Customer Due Diligence Procedure sets out the process it follows in undertaking human rights due diligence checks on companies it works with. The other enterprise agencies have similar processes in place.

The Scottish Government is fully committed to supporting people’s rights to public assembly and protest. The operational policing of protests and demonstrations is rightly a matter for Police Scotland and their priority will always be maintaining public safety. The Scottish Government supports Police Scotland, as a rights-based organisation, to take appropriate and proportionate action in response to any criminal offences and to maintain public order at, and around, such events. We have funded the Centre for Good Relations to run training courses to upskill stewards and marshals involved in facilitating marches, parades and protests. This training is available free of change and has received very positive feedback in 2024-25, which is why we are continuing to support this in 2025-26.

NatureScot has published Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEA for Tayside, Knapdale, the Forth catchment, Loch Lomond catchment, the River Spey and the Beauly catchments, as well as publishing a screening report for the Rivers Ness and Lochy catchments.

Given the body of work to date and the likelihood of assessing similar environmental effects in different catchments, NatureScot has proposed that it will adopt an SEA screening approach to new catchments to determine if there are novel interests and interactions that may require a more detailed assessment. This will streamline the approach to future SEA assessments. Prioritising assessments will depend on where there is interest from land managers and organisations in hosting beavers.

The Scottish Government continues to identify release sites on publicly owned and managed land. NatureScot are also inviting land managers with an interest in hosting beavers to come forward so that they can discuss the licence application process with them and, where possible, bring together land managers with the same aspirations.

In July 2023, Scottish Forestry launched the Woodlands for Riparian Benefits Forestry Grant Scheme, targeting specific areas to enhance Scotland’s riparian woodlands. The scheme offers increased grant rates for areas along watercourses. Around 175,000 hectares have been identified where planting riparian woodland can be prioritised to deliver and maximise multiple benefits.

There are also measures in the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme for the management of water margins, management of wetlands and floodplains and capital items to support river restoration approaches. While these are not specific to beaver reintroduction, these schemes can be used to enhance riparian habitats in those circumstances.

Yes. The approach NatureScot take, as the licensing authority for the issuing of lethal control licences for beaver management, is consistent with the approach that it uses for licensing lethal control for other European Protected Species, in that the licensing tests are the same. The interpretation of these will have some nuance depending on the interests being affected, the availability of satisfactory alternatives for different conflict situations and the conservation status of the species.

Work has been ongoing within public agencies to identify sites where beaver release may take place, within and on the edge of current range and in new catchments. A licence issued to the Cairngorms National Park Authority allows for a further five beaver families to be released. Forestry and Land Scotland have submitted an application for beaver translocation to Glen Affric within the Beauly catchment which is currently being assessed by NatureScot.

NatureScot encourages any landowner who is interested in hosting beavers to come forward so that they can discuss the licence application process with them and the suitability of sites. The number of beavers hosted will vary depending on the number of release sites and the local circumstances, however, this forms part of the application process considered by NatureScot.

All applications for trapping or lethal control of beavers require that satisfactory alternatives are considered.

The beaver licence application form asks what alternative mitigations have been attempted. NatureScot specialists can advise whether there are other satisfactory alternatives that could be put in place and can require that these should be attempted first, before determining an application for a licence.

The Scottish Government has regular communication with the UK Government and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) on a variety of issues affecting the maritime industry in Scotland including related to seafarer welfare.

Whilst shipping safety, seafarer welfare and employment conditions are reserved functions, the Scottish Government is committed to working with the UK Government and the MCA to ensure that these matters are given the highest priority on those vessels accessing Scotland’s waters and ports.

The Scottish Government has been consistently clear that it opposes fire and rehire practices.