Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Draft Scottish Biodiversity Strategy includes commitments to continue effective species recovery, reintroduction and reinforcement programmes and to introduce an agricultural future support framework which delivers for nature restoration and biodiversity.

The Scottish Government and NatureScot have agreed to undertake a review of the Sea Eagle Management Scheme and White-tailed Eagle Action Plan. Terms of reference for this work have been drafted and will be shared with the Sea Eagle National Stakeholder Panel shortly.

The review will assess progress on delivering the aims of the Sea Eagle Management Scheme to support farmers and crofters to manage their livestock alongside a growing sea eagle population.

NatureScot, through the Sea Eagle Management Scheme, delivers a range of measures to support farmers and crofters to manage sheep flocks to mitigate the impacts of sea eagle predation.

These include:

• Provision of one-to-one advice from experienced contractors to land managers experiencing sea eagle impacts
• Co-ordination of recording/logging of sea eagle activity and flock management information at a farm/croft level
• Loan of scaring equipment
• Payments to land managers who undertake management measures which mitigate sea eagle impacts as part of their livestock management, through Management Agreements.

Payments can be made for flock management (including supplementary feeding, tick and fluke treatments), enhanced management (including additional shepherding and away wintering of sheep) and capital measures (including purchase of scaring devices, creation of hill parks and support for indoor lambing).

More details are available on the NatureScot website at https://www.nature.scot/professional-advice/land-and-sea-management/managing-wildlife/sea-eagle-management-scheme

Scottish Government Rural Payment and Inspectorate Division staff and NatureScot staff are part of the National Sea Eagle Stakeholder Panel. The panel is represented by a range of interests including a number of farming and crofting organisations

Alongside representation on the National Sea Eagle Stakeholder Panel, NatureScot run the Sea Eagle Management Scheme, which currently has over 190 participants. Engagement is directly with the participants and ranges from site visits and advice from NatureScot contractors, scheme payments, developing management and mitigation measures and carrying out site based work to improve our understanding of sea eagle interactions with sheep.

Scottish companies already have a wide range of options when it comes to participating in international trade missions. They can apply to participate in missions hosted by Scottish Development International and the Scottish Chambers of Commerce which are guided by the priorities set out in A Trading Nation, our export plan. Companies can also join trade missions run by the Department of Business and Trade.

Given the wide range of options already available to companies we currently have no plans to participate in joint trade missions with Scotland Office.

We have regular dialogue with our colleagues in the UK Government, particularly the Department for Business and Trade regarding promoting Scotland’s overseas trade links. However, we were not made aware of the Secretary of State for Scotland’s visit to Vietnam.

Article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child includes the right to adequate nutritious food. Universal school breakfast provision does have the potential to give further and fuller effect to this right.

The Concluding Observations from the UK’s recent state party scrutiny by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child includes a recommendation that the UK administrations strengthen measures to address child malnutrition, food insecurity and growing trends in overweight and obesity, by expanding the free school meals programme to all children in disadvantaged situations. It is not specific about how provision could be strengthened in Scotland.

The Blueprint for Good Governance in NHS Scotland has been adopted by all NHS Boards. The second edition, published in December 2022, places more emphasis on the delivery mechanisms and the need to apply a continuous improvement approach to reviewing governance arrangements. Support for innovation and the role of NHS Boards in delivering this is a key component of the Blueprint.

To provide assurance on implementation of the Blueprint, all NHS Boards will complete an annual self-assessment, the outcome of which will be used to create Board Governance Development Plans. Plans will be used by NHS Boards to refine and improve their governance processes and the Scottish Government will look at key themes and national lessons to support further development of our approach to governance.

The current lists of Ministerial responsibilities are provided on the Scottish Government website at Cabinet and Ministers - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Where Ministers have recused themselves from an issue within their portfolio to avoid an actual or perceived conflict of interest, this is recorded on the Scottish Government website at List of ministers' interests - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

These lists are kept up to date and reflect changes made since 15 June 2023.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has a number of options in its enforcement toolkit, ranging from informal advice and guidance to the use of formal enforcement measures including final warning letters, statutory notices, monetary penalties, and reports to the Procurator Fiscal recommending prosecution.

SEPA’s licences set out actions operators are required to take and SEPA’s enforcement action is designed to secure compliance using the most appropriate and effective method. Scottish Water has received one fine in the last five years for a sewage spill.