Official Report 542KB pdf
Wildlife Management (Consequential Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2024 (SSI 2024/268)
We move on to consideration of a negative Scottish statutory instrument. Do members wish to comment on the instrument?
I have a couple of wee comments. The letter that the minister sent to the committee said that the Scottish Government will help to support those who use traps with more information on courses et cetera. I do not believe that that information has been sent out. I do not know whether you have any further information on that, convener, or whether we can get any more information on it.
My other comment is on the continuing point about the business and regulatory impact assessment. There is an argument that, although a BRIA was done originally, it did not include the issue of snares and traps, so there probably needs to be another one.
Those are two issues that still concern me about the regulations.
Absolutely. I certainly share the concerns about the BRIA. There was no BRIA to reflect the impact of banning snares, because the snaring ban measures were introduced as amendments at stage 2 of the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill. With other pieces of legislation, a BRIA was done—for example, that happened with the ban on hunting with dogs, as that absolutely was the intention of the Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Bill.
I wonder whether we can write to the minister to confirm whether it is possible to get information relating to the impact assessment of the snaring ban and how land managers and those protecting our endangered species can mitigate the impact of the removal of snaring as part of their predator control.
Are there any other comments?
I have just one more point that I had flagged up. The minister’s letter of 25 October mentioned ground-nesting bird surveys. One of the big issues is how we monitor whether the ban will have an effect on such birds. Could we potentially pick that up in a further letter and ask where the science and data are coming from on that? Obviously, the situation needs to be baselined so that, moving forward, we can tell what the impacts are.
Okay—thank you. Unless any other members have comments, I assume that we are all content. That concludes our proceedings in public, and we will move into private session.
10:13 Meeting continued in private until 10:26.Air ais
Joint Fisheries Statement