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Avian influenza in mammals is a notifiable disease and Scottish Ministers have powers to investigate and control the potential spread of influenza of avian origin in non-avian species.

The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) routinely undertakes diagnostic testing of wild animals found dead under the GB wildlife surveillance scheme. Retrospective and active testing of samples has enabled us to identify and observe clinical signs of influenza of avian origin in mammals and to share this information with official veterinarians to increase their awareness. Samples taken as part of this scheme, since October 2021, have detected the presence of H5N1 influenza in a total of 23 mammals in the UK, of which 5 were detected in Scotland. The detection of the virus does not mean that it was the cause of death of these animals.

The Scottish Government regularly exercises our response to disease outbreaks in collaboration with operational partners and public health colleagues across Great Britain. This includes our response to avian influenza in both birds and mammals.

The infection of mammals with influenza of avian origin remains uncommon, including in humans. Avian influenza viruses remain predominantly a pathogen that affects birds, and globally, given the huge number of kept and wild birds that have been infected, only a small number of findings of naturally acquired Influenza A(H5N1) infections in mammals have been reported.

The Scottish Government is committed to a service design approach to policy making involving user-centred co-development. Appropriate testing and measurement will be applied at each stage of development and following implementation of measures to evaluate their ease, cost and impact against the outcomes of the Scottish Government’s Vision for Agriculture.

Examples underway this month include testing the list of measures published on 10 February directly with farmers who engaged in the Testing Actions for Sustainable Farming survey . This is being done through interviews conducted by professional researchers to understand how stakeholders view the measures and their applicability within future agricultural support mechanisms as well as areas for improvement.

A prisoner serving a determinate sentence cannot be held beyond the end of that sentence.

If a person is given an indeterminate sentence the judge must, by law, set a punishment part of the sentence. This is the minimum time the person must spend in prison before they can be considered for release into the community by the relevant Parole Board.

As of the morning of the 3rd of April 2023:

• 233 (31%) of the 756 serving a life sentence, and
• 168 (75%) of the 224 serving other indeterminate sentences (i.e. Order of Lifelong Restriction or Imprisonment for Public Protection)

remained in custody beyond the period of the punishment part of their sentence.

SPS do not hold information centrally on the reasons why Parole Boards have not recommended release for these individuals.

Due to the small number of prisoners serving sentences of Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP), these have been combined with Orders of Lifelong Restriction (OLR) to prevent the identification of individuals.

The Scottish Government's Preparing For Sustainable Farming (PSF) initiative is helping farmers and crofters across Scotland transition to more sustainable and regenerative farming, including carbon auditing and soil testing. Between 1 January and 17 April 2023 there were 987 PSF claims received.

There have been no recent discussions between the Scottish Government Culture and Major Events Directorate (a) ScotRail and (b) Transport Scotland.

However Culture and Major Event Officials, along with relevant transport stakeholders, routinely take part in the multi-agency Events Planning and Operations Group (EPOG) dealing with Summer Events. EPOG is run by the City of Edinburgh Council as the lead planning authority in respect of Summer Events within Edinburgh, such as Edinburgh Festivals.

Outwith Edinburgh, Transport Scotland continue to discuss planning arrangement for major events with transport deliver partners and key stakeholders through quarterly Major Events Planning meetings in addition to regular event specific meetings.

In addition, ScotRail is required under the terms of its grant agreement to use all reasonable endeavours to provide for reallocation of Passenger Carrying Capacity to serve Special Events.

NatureScot have already taken a number of actions to make the process for obtaining a licence for a conservation translocation of a beaver within existing range attractive and achievable for landowners.

NatureScot has produced guidance on beaver translocation for applicants, consultees and interested parties which sets out the expectations for engagement with those most likely to be affected. The extent of stakeholder engagement should be proportionate to the proposals.

There are existing environmental appraisals for beaver translocations in the Tay, Forth, Knapdale and Loch Lomond catchments. Proposals that are within range and genuinely low risk are not expected to demonstrate the same level of engagement as proposals in new catchments where there may be new risks and benefits to consider.

A translocation licence application should contain project details as set out in the Scottish Code for Conservation Translocations. This includes an assessment of release site suitability, a summary of what stakeholder engagement has been carried out and evidence of landowner permission. NatureScot staff can advise land managers with an interest in receiving beavers within range, and are working with public bodies to identify suitable opportunities on public land.

The application process should not be a barrier for those seeking to release beavers within range. Further information can be found in the following link: https://www.nature.scot/doc/beavers-scotland-conservation-translocation-guidance-applicants-consultees-and-interested-parties

Following the publication of the Scotland’s Beaver Strategy NatureScot will be discussing with the Scottish Beaver Advisory Group what further action might be required to achieve this goal.

Although the European Charter of Local Self-Government (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill is a member’s bill, led by Mark Ruskell MSP, the Scottish Government remains committed to its reconsideration and incorporating the European Charter into domestic legislation as soon as practicable to further strengthen the status and standing of local government in Scotland.

On 12 April 2021 the UK Government referred four provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill to the Supreme Court. The referral also covered two provisions from the Local Self-Government Bill: section 4, which creates an obligation to interpret legislation compatibly with the requirements of the Charter in so far as it is possible to do so, and section 5, which gives courts the power to declare legislation to be incompatible with the Charter. In October 2021 the Supreme Court found the provisions referred within each Bill to be outside the competence of the Scottish Parliament.

Preparation for Reconsideration Stage is well underway and Scottish Government lawyers have been working carefully with the UK Government lawyers on amendments to the UNCRC Bill to address the Supreme Court’s judgment.

The Scottish Government has engaged with Mark Ruskell MSP, during this process to support him in taking his bill forward. Mr Ruskell is in agreement that reconsideration of the Local Self-Government Bill should take place after the UNCRC Bill accordingly.

The Scottish Government is continuing to take steps towards achieving the World Health Organisation’s targets to eliminate cervical cancer. As part of this, we have recently provided funding to Strathclyde University to conduct research into modelling that will estimate when we might expect to reach the point of elimination.

83.9% of S4 pupils in 2021/22 completed the two dose schedule for the HPV vaccine in Scotland. From January this year, a one dose schedule will be introduced for all those eligible in the programme up to their 25th birthday. It is expected this simplified schedule will increase uptake further. One-dose HPV vaccine coverage is currently 91.5% for girls in S4. The Scottish Government will continue to work with Public Health Scotland (PHS) and Health Boards to maintain high vaccination uptake.

Data regarding cervical screening uptake in Scotland is due to be published by Public Health Scotland later this year, and efforts are on-going to improve uptake. We have awarded £456,000 to Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust to support campaign work on screening benefits. Additionally, in preparation for a potential UK National Screening Committee recommendation, the screening programme continues to consider the steps necessary for introducing cervical self-sampling, which has the potential to remove some of the barriers which deter people from attending screening appointments.

We are developing a new 10 year cancer strategy which will launch in spring this year and take a comprehensive approach to improving patient pathways from prevention and diagnosis through to treatment and post-treatment care.

The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost, due to the significant number of meetings which take place between Energy Saving Trust and the Scottish Government. Energy officials alone meet with EST a number of times a week, both ad hoc and scheduled, to discuss the programme of work they deliver on the government's behalf. A significant number of meetings have also taken place within the specified timeframe between transport and water policy officials and EST.

While the decision to use rail is for the freight customer and its logistics provider, the Scottish Government has shown leadership in facilitating modal shift to rail with significant investment and innovative regulatory targets for 2019 to 2024 and 2024 to 2029.

The rail freight target is measured in net tonne miles and, due to the commercial nature of freight, tends to vary considerably from year to year. Currently, there has been an overall 7.6% drop in net tonne miles since 2018 due to a general contraction in the markets for various reasons, including the impact of the Covid 19 pandemic and the global economy.

New traffic to rail was 2.9 million net tonne miles in 2019-20 and 48.8 million net tonne miles in 2022-23. This reflects the five new rail freight services which have started in Scotland in the last twelve months including a cross border express logistics services .