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There were fifteen Marine Licensing offences detected under the 2010 Act, these were by year, 2019 X1, 2020 X2, 2021 X2, 2022 X5, 2024 X5. Marine licensing offences are not fishery offences.

Additionally, there were forty-three breaches of Nature Conservation Orders which are enabled by the 2010 Act. These were by year, 2019 7, 2020 5, 2021 11, 2022 9, 2023 5, 2024 6, 2025 none as yet. These were all committed by UK vessels.

The Promise Scotland provides secretariat support for The Oversight Board. This involves governance, administration and communications support, and managing the expenses for members. Fee claims and expenses are processed by The Promise Scotland.

I met with members of The Oversight Board for The Promise on Tuesday 4th February 2025. I also attended the Parliamentary reception on 27th February, organised by The Oversight Board and attended by their members, to celebrate publication of the Third Report by The Oversight Board.

The opening of a Scottish Government office in Warsaw is currently under review given ongoing budget pressures.

Any preparations in relation to the proposals for the opening of a Scottish Government office in Warsaw have been undertaken by officials with the Directorate for Culture and External Affairs as part of normal business.

The opening of a Scottish Government office in Warsaw is currently under review given ongoing budget pressures.

Whilst the Scottish Government does not provide direct funding to create community growing sites, since 2012 we have awarded nearly £2.5 million to expand and encourage food growing skills and access to community growing sites across the country. This includes £100,000 awarded to Green Action Trust annually since 2021 to deliver the Growing Food Together Fund. On average, around 9 to 10 groups or projects are supported by this funding each year.

To best utilise the funding available and maximise the number of groups it can support, the fund has understandably prioritised expanding existing growing spaces (such as through the addition of new planters, polytunnels or other similar infrastructure) rather than providing funding to establish entirely new sites.

In the Highlands and Islands region, there are currently 9 Historic Environment Scotland sites which are temporarily closed. Within the Highlands and Islands region, there are no Historic Environment Scotland sites which are permanently closed.

The temporarily closed sites are:

Aberdeenshire Council:

Glenbuchat Castle

Huntly Castle

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar:

Kisimul Castle

Highland Council:

Castle of Old Wick

Moray Council:

Bishops House, Elgin

Dallas Dhu Distillery

Orkney Islands Council:

Eynhallow Church

Tormiston Mill

Shetland Islands Council:

Scalloway Castle

Any further queries from the member regarding the day-to-day operational matters of Historic Environment Scotland, including information relating to any repair and maintenance works of any specific site, are best answered directly by Historic Environment Scotland.

NatureScot did not hold any direct discussions with (a) NFU Scotland and (b) Scottish Land and Estates regarding its recent decision to grant licences for the release of six beaver families at two sites in the River Beauly catchment

The main engagement for conservation translocations is carried out by the applicants, in this case, Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS).

The FLS application followed two years of engagement by Trees for Life and FLS. The Abriachan application followed local community consultation hosted by the Abriachan Forest Trust and Scotland the Big Picture. Scottish land and Estates and NFUS were invited to attend a consultation event, which NFUS attended.

The Affric engagement reports can be found here:

https://treesforlife.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Glen-Affric-and-Strathglass-beaver-consultation-report.pdf

https://treesforlife.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Deciding-Matters-Beaver-Consultation-Report-28-May-2024.pdf

NatureScot received correspondence from NFUS on this topic on behalf of members prior to and after the application was submitted by FLS.

As Licensing Authority and recognising there remained concerns amongst land and fisheries managers in Beauly and Strathglass about beaver release proposals, NatureScot carried out further engagement over the summer 2025 to better understand these concerns. Site visits were requested by 12 landholdings and three groups representing fishing interests. NatureScot staff met with the land and fisheries managers directly on site to discuss their concerns. A representative from NFUS was present at one of these meetings.

At this time, there are no defined plans to incorporate AI into the RP&S platform. The Agriculture Reform Programme is currently leading the development of a Future Operating Model for ARE which is carefully considering the capabilities required to deliver the Vision for Agriculture/policy objectives. This will include fully exploring the use of appropriate digital capabilities and technologies which can improve our services and the customer experience of our users however as stated at this time, there are no plans to incorporate AI into the RP&S platform.