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The Scottish Ministers announced, on 4 October 2016, that it would undertake a full review of the penalties under existing animal health and welfare legislation. As I announced, in response to S5W-06556 on 3 February 2017, initial communication has taken place with key stakeholders and enforcement agencies with a view to consulting in due course on proposed amendments to aid deterrence of offences, and to provide for better enforcement and prosecution of any offences committed.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

The following table sets out the number of trips undertaken by all Scottish registered fishing vessels in the specified period against the recorded number of trips undertaken by the vessels participating in the Fully Documented Fishing Schemes in the each year. The number of individual hauls is not recorded.

Remote Electronic Monitoring equipment is not deployed for compliance purposes. Participation in the Fully Documented Fisheries scheme is voluntary and primarily focused on scientific data gathering in collaboration with Masters and crew.

Of a total of 5,368 designated features of Sites of Special Scientific Interest and Natura sites across Scotland, 556 have been included in a Delivering Favourable Condition Partnership Action Plan. After three years of these features being included in an Action Plan:

i) 183 (32.9%%) have improved in condition;

ii) 201 (36.2%) have not yet improved from an unfavourable condition; and

iii) 58 (10.4%) have declined in condition.

In addition, 114 features (20.5%) have retained their ‘favourable’ status or their ‘unfavourable recovering due to management’ status by renewing arrangements to support sympathetic management, where failure to take this action would result in the features slipping into unfavourable condition.

The Marine Scotland Science (MSS) scientific observer programme is scheduled to carry out a total of 80 trips on demersal trawlers and 226 trips on Nephrops trawlers. The programme is expected to cover around 2% of the fishing trips of Scottish demersal trawlers and 1 % of the fishing trips of Scottish Nephrops trawlers and amount to 0.5% of fishing trips of the entire Scottish fleet.

The aim of the scientific observer programme is not for enforcement but to fulfil the requirement of EU regulation 199/2008 to collect biological information (quantity, species, length and age) on the fish caught, for the purposes of stock assessment and fisheries management.

Up to 4 trawlers are anticipated to participate in the 2017 Saithe and Monkfish FDF scheme, which will run between April 2017 and December 2017. Up to 10 scallop boats may also participate in a separate FDF scheme scheduled to run between June and December.

The vast majority of planning appeals are delegated to a Scottish Government reporter who is appointed by Scottish Ministers to make a decision on their behalf. It is at the appointed person’s discretion to decide whether further procedure is needed to obtain further information and if so, the most effective and efficient method of obtaining it. All interested parties who have made representations in respect of each appeal are given the opportunity to confirm their objection or support to each proposal in writing or to participate at hearing or inquiry sessions where relevant.

The vast majority of planning appeals are delegated to a Scottish Government reporter who is appointed by Scottish Ministers to make a decision on their behalf. It is at the appointed person’s discretion to decide whether further procedure is needed to obtain further information and if so, the most effective and efficient method of obtaining it.

The Scottish Government is already revising guidance that will help local authorities and others to fulfil their duties to keep land clear of litter and refuse, and roads clean.

This guidance, which will be laid in Parliament in the coming months, will support duty holders in taking action which prevents litter from arising in the first place - aiming to reduce the amount of resources being spent on cleaning up other people’s mess.

Scottish Government revenue funding for local authorities is provided by means of a block grant. It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities. Local authorities are expected to use resources as efficiently and effectively as possible to ensure taxpayers get the best possible services and value for money.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information requested.

Litter and flytipping have no place within the circular economy that we want to move towards. It is also important for tourism that Scotland is always presented at its best.

Our National Litter Strategy sets out how Scotland can significantly reduce litter and flytipping, and support cleaner, safer communities. Its focus is on encouraging personal responsibility to prevent the problems in the first place.

The Scottish Government’s circular economy strategy, ‘Making Things Last’ sets out our priorities for supporting circular economy design, bringing together specialist circular economy support from Zero Waste Scotland, and mainstream business and design support from the enterprise agencies.

The Scottish Government does not hold detailed information on delivery of this support.