Seòmar agus comataidhean

Scottish Ministers have granted a limited trial to undertake a pilot project with a number of inshore vessels to help gather further information to support a longer-term policy development on fishing for squid under the North Sea Cod Avoidance Plan (NCAP).

There is currently limited evidence about the impacts of the squid fishing on cod stocks and bycatch of non-target stocks. This project would look to address some of these limitations and seek to evaluate the evidence, once collected.

Through this project, it is hoped that further information will be provided to help inform the balance between environmental, economic and social objectives and development of the squid fishery.

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.

Muirburn is currently guided by the Muirburn Code: https://www.nature.scot/doc/guidance-muirburn-code which is a non-statutory code and sets out both the law and good practice relating to muirburn.

Section 3.3 of the current Muirburn Code clearly states that the person undertaking muirburn must not burn within 30m of a public road; create smoke that is a nuisance; and endanger anyone’s health and/or safety.

Anyone with concerns that the law is not being complied with in regards to muirburn should contact Police Scotland.

The Wildlife Management and Muirburn Act 2024 introduced a provision to further regulate the use of muirburn including that all muirburn will need to be carried out under licence.

A condition of the licence will be that anyone carrying out muirburn must have completed a training course. In future this will include both an online and a practical course. Currently no training is required for carrying out muirburn in Scotland.

NatureScot are also currently consulting on a new Muirburn Code that will accompany the licensing scheme, which sets out the essential considerations for muirburn, including where and when muirburn can be carried out, the required notifications before setting muirburn and necessary safety measures. The muirburn licensing scheme and revised Muirburn Code are being introduced to help ensure that muirburn is carried out safely and appropriately.

The current Muirburn Code: https://www.nature.scot/doc/guidance-muirburn-code is a non-statutory Code which sets out both the law and good practice relating to muirburn and applies to all moorland managers and includes farmers, crofters, shepherds and gamekeepers.

A new licensing scheme for muirburn, as introduced by the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024 is expected to come in to effect later this year. NatureScot are currently consulting on a new statutory Muirburn Code that will accompany the licensing scheme. It will set out where and when muirburn can be carried out, the required notifications before setting muirburn and necessary safety measures.

As with all laws, enforcement is a matter for Police Scotland. NatureScot will also have statutory powers to modify, suspend or revoke a licence for non-compliance of the Act.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on how many international students have accessed GP services in each NHS board area in each year since 1999.

The Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill is a Member's Bill, introduced to the Scottish Parliament by Liam McArthur MSP, not a Scottish Government Bill. It is the role of the Scottish Parliament Health, Social Care and Sport Committee to scrutinise the Bill and it will be for the Scottish Parliament to decide on whether or not to pass it into law.

Operational decisions are rightly a matter for Police Scotland. They use a range of existing powers under road safety and antisocial behaviour legislation to take appropriate action in response to the illegal use of off-road vehicles. This includes various initiatives which take account of local need such as local engagement, increased and targeted patrols at hot spot areas, use of off-road vehicles for pursuit where it is safe to do so. We are aware that drones have been used operationally by Police Scotland and it is their decision when they are utilised.

We continue to consider ways forward in partnership with Police Scotland and Local Authorities for tackling vehicle nuisance and related safety issues.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-36274 on 17 April 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

Scotland is not alone in experiencing falling birth rates, which is a trend across many high-income countries. This has significant implications for the sustainability of our economies, communities and public services. We want to ensure that Scotland is the ideal place to raise a family, and while deciding to have a child or not is rightly a personal decision, we are identifying and addressing barriers to people starting or expanding families in line with their intentions, through the delivery of Scotland’s Population Strategy.

Our 2022 ‘Attitudes to Family Formation’ research highlighted a range of key factors such as housing and economic pressures driving decisions around family formation in Scotland. In mid-2023, the Ministerial Population Taskforce requested that further research be undertaken to increase the Scottish Government’s awareness of family friendly policies which had been developed and implemented in different countries, including interventions implemented in Nordic countries. A paper was discussed at the December 2024 meeting of the Taskforce which explored initial learning from this research exercise.

This early stage, exploratory research aimed to consider the broader international context and responses to trends around birth rates. As such, implications for costed implementation of interventions in Scotland have not yet been considered. The next steps for this workstream will include further research into parental leave uptake and its impact on fertility decisions. Outputs from this work will be considered accordingly by Scottish Ministers.

The following table provides the amount of Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) consumed by the MV Glen Sannox for the period covering December 2024 until March 2025.