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Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 21 January 2025
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Displaying 4623 contributions

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Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 14 June 2023

Ariane Burgess

I understand that, but I am confused as to why we are talking at length about glue traps, and I am trying to get clarity. We are talking about them because the bill is bringing in provisions on glue traps, but it is about wildlife management, muirburn and specifically raptor control. I want to get clarity.

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 14 June 2023

Ariane Burgess

On muirburn, is there anything else that you think needs to be in the bill, or are you content with it?

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 14 June 2023

Ariane Burgess

When we were talking about wildfires earlier, I picked up that we need to follow the precautionary principle. The desire to move from a voluntary practice to a regulated and licensed practice is because we will potentially see more wildfires happening. Maybe that will be from natural causes, but my understanding from talking to people who work in that area is that wildfires are always at the hand of a human, whether it is in error or by intention.

I picked up from what you were saying that, as wildfires increase, we will need to increase the workforce and the equipment that is on hand to attend to those. Regulating muirburn is a way of moving towards a more precautionary approach so that we limit what might happen in other areas. We have already seen, with the fires in Cannich and Corrimony, that deploying people to attend to the fires is quite challenging.

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 14 June 2023

Ariane Burgess

Could we take that technology further and have something within a trap so that you could tell if it had been moved? We do that remotely for many other things. Surely, we could move in that direction.

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 14 June 2023

Ariane Burgess

I want to come back to the code of practice. I am interested in the idea that you are looking at the scientific evidence base and the bigger picture. Have you looked into the issue of lead shot being used? I realise that that is being phased out, but I am aware that, in parts of my region, at least historically, lead shot might be fired from what is a grouse moor but ends up being shot into trees on neighbouring land. Is there any understanding of the problems of chemical grit running into the watercourse? Is that talked about? Have we looked into lead seeping into our ground and our watercourses?

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 14 June 2023

Ariane Burgess

It is an opportunity for somebody.

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 14 June 2023

Ariane Burgess

We try to protect peat because we recognise that it is a super carbon sink. It is great that we are moving potentially to the licensing of it, but it seems odd that, on the one hand, we are funding the protection of it and, on the other hand, we are saying that it is okay to burn it, no matter the depth.

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 14 June 2023

Ariane Burgess

I would be interested in hearing whether you feel that the recommendations on muirburn have been addressed in the bill and whether there is anything else that you would like to see in it. For example, in your review, you recommended increased training, which you have already addressed with my colleague Emma Harper. You also recommended that a fire danger rating system for Scotland should be introduced to better support decision making about where and when to burn, and that the Scottish Government should explore changes to the current rural payments and inspections division payments. It might not be appropriate to deal with those recommendations in the bill, but how do we ensure that they are dealt with? Is there anything else that you think should be addressed in the bill?

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 14 June 2023

Ariane Burgess

It is good to hear that point from Mike Flynn. Do we have any developments in technology? We are aware of the digital technology that supports us with the raptor persecution aspect. Is there some kind of digital technology that we could apply to traps so that we could see whether they were being tampered with, just as you can see a vessel’s activity in our inshore fisheries?

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 14 June 2023

Ariane Burgess

I am not quite sure where to bring this in, but I want to clarify something. We are talking in detail about how and where traps are used, which is very helpful, so I thank Ian Andrew for that. I get the sense that we need to do a 360° look if we are bringing in this legislation. However, primarily the legislation is being introduced to address raptor persecution. In the policy memorandum, paragraph 13, under “Policy objectives”, says:

“The use of glue to trap birds is an offence”.

That is what we are trying to tackle here, is it not?