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The Scottish Government is committed to the creation of a Scottish Veterinary Service (SVS) to ensure there are highly trained staff to provide Scotland with good animal health and food safety to meet all our needs across the public and private sector for animal health issues.

A Programme has been established to manage the work required to create an SVS, which includes conducting a financial appraisal of the operational and investment costs of the Service.

The financial appraisal will assess how consolidation under a single body provides opportunities to enhance quality, efficiency, resilience and value for money

The Scottish Government is committed to the creation of a Scottish Veterinary Service (SVS) to ensure there are highly trained staff to provide Scotland with good animal health and food safety to meet all our needs across the public and private sector for animal health issues. For that purpose, a Programme has been established to manage the work required to create an SVS.

The Extension to the Review of Field Delivery of Animal Health Services in Scotland report, conducted by Professor Charles Milne, followed up on the earlier Field Delivery of Animal Health Services in Scotland, and was based on interviews with individual sand organisations involved in animal health services in Scotland and beyond.

The SVS Programme is assessing which functions the SVS should deliver, including border checks. APHA is only responsibility for border checks on live animals, with Scottish Local Authorities responsible for checks on animal products.

Scottish Government Officials liaise regularly with the Animal and Plant health Agency, as well as Defra, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive officials to ensure that suitable arrangements are in place, in due course, to mitigate against any risks to animal health and welfare as a result of different arrangement for the delivery of veterinary controls in Scotland. It is impossible, however, to make effective plans for the delivery of border checks while the UK Government continues to delay the publication of the awaited UK Target Operating Model for Borders.

The Scottish Government is committed to the creation of a Scottish Veterinary Service (SVS) to ensure there are highly trained staff to provide Scotland with good animal health and food safety to meet all our needs across the public and private sector for animal health issues.

A Programme has been established to manage the work required to create an SVS, which includes conducting a financial appraisal of the operational and investment costs of the Service.

All potential functions considered for future delivery by the SVS are already funded by the Scottish Government under a variety of arrangements. Some of those functions already attract fees raised from industry, but it is too early to consider any new future charges.

The financial appraisal will assess how consolidation under a single body provides opportunities to enhance quality, efficiency, resilience and value for money.

The Scottish Government is committed to the creation of a Scottish Veterinary Service (SVS) to ensure there are highly trained staff to provide Scotland with good animal health and food safety to meet all our needs across the public and private sector for animal health issues.

A Programme has been established to manage the work required to create an SVS, which includes determining which functions the Service should deliver, and conducting a financial appraisal of the operational and investment costs of the Service.

All potential functions considered for future delivery by the SVS are already funded by the Scottish Government under a variety of arrangements. The financial appraisal will assess how consolidation under a single body provides opportunities to enhance quality, efficiency, resilience and value for money.

Ultra High Frequency (UHF) electronic identification (EID) for cattle has been trialled progressively in Scotland over the past decade through an Industry led Bovine EID ‘pilot’. The findings from this pilot, which has also considered Low Frequency (LF) technology, are expected to be published shortly. Any proposed future changes to regulations concerning cattle identification, will also be subject to a full public consultation.

The Scottish Biodiversity Strategy (SBS) sets out Priority Actions which are urgently required to achieve the vision of halting biodiversity loss by 2030 and reversing the trend by 2045, whilst contributing to addressing climate change. Of particular relevance to forestry is the following priority action, which recognises the important role that can be played by all types of woodland, including commercial forests.

Ensure that productive forests and woodlands are designed and managed in ways that deliver increased biodiversity and habitat connectivity whilst sustaining timber production and carbon sequestration to meet the climate crisis and reduce their vulnerability to climate risks.

The action will be delivered through the Scottish Forestry Strategy (SFS), which is built on the principles of sustainable forest management (SFM), including commitments to biodiversity. A set of high-level indicators has been identified to track and report progress against the SFS including the Woodland Ecological Condition official statistic, Designated Site Condition Monitoring, abundance of terrestrial breeding birds, and the area of woodland independently certified by the UK Woodland Assurance Scheme (UKWAS). It is anticipated that achieving the goals of the SBS will increase the biodiversity value of productive woodlands without adversely affecting the sustainable production of timber in Scotland.

The Scottish Government is committed to the creation of a Scottish Veterinary Service (SVS) to ensure there are highly trained staff to provide Scotland with good animal health and food safety to meet all our needs across the public and private sector for animal health issues.

A Programme has been established to manage the work required to create an SVS, which includes conducting a financial appraisal of the operational and investment costs of the Service.

All potential functions considered for future delivery by the SVS are already funded by the Scottish Government under a variety of arrangements. The financial appraisal will assess how consolidation under a single body provides opportunities to enhance quality, efficiency, resilience and value for money.

The Scottish Government is committed to the creation of a Scottish Veterinary Service (SVS) to ensure there are highly trained staff to provide Scotland with good animal health and food safety to meet all our needs across the public and private sector for animal health issues.

Animal health and welfare matters are devolved, and were so before the creation of an Scottish Veterinary Service was considered. The Scottish Government is satisfied that any future changes to the arrangements for the delivery of veterinary controls will be purely operational and have negligible implications for the operation of the Internal Market Act 2020.

The Scottish Government is committed to the creation of a Scottish Veterinary Service (SVS) to ensure there are highly trained staff to provide Scotland with good animal health and food safety to meet all our needs across the public and private sector for animal health issues.

Animal health and welfare matters are devolved, and were so before the creation of an Scottish Veterinary Service was considered. The Scottish Government is satisfied that any future changes to the arrangements for the delivery of veterinary controls will be purely operational and have negligible implications for the operation of the Internal Market Act 2020.

Nevertheless, animal diseases do not respect borders, and there will be areas where communication, cooperation and interoperability between the future Scottish Veterinary Service and its counterparts in the rest of GB or the UK will be required for effective delivery, such as data sharing, science and research, contingency planning and mutual assistance for major incidents and disease outbreaks.

Scottish Government Officials liaise regularly with the UK Government and the other Devolved Administrations on animal health and welfare matters, including the SVS, through the mechanisms established under the UK Framework for Animal Health and Welfare.

The Scottish Government welcomes that the British Veterinary Association sees advantages and opportunities in the creation of a Scottish Veterinary Service (SVS), and also agrees with the veterinary profession's representative body that there are risks that must be managed. To do so, a Programme has been put in place to manage the work required to establish an SVS.

Animal diseases do not respect borders, and Officials in the Programme have identified areas where communication, cooperation and interoperability between the future Scottish Veterinary Service and its counterparts in the rest of GB or the UK is required for effective delivery, such as data sharing, science and research, contingency planning and mutual assistance for major incidents and disease outbreaks.

Scottish Government Officials liaise regularly with the Animal and Plant health Agency, as well as Defra, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive officials to ensure that suitable arrangements are in place, in due course, to mitigate against any risks to animal health and welfare as a result of different arrangement for the delivery of veterinary controls in Scotland.

Scottish Ministers, the Chief Veterinary Officer, and officials communicate with the British Veterinary Association regularly on this and other animal health and welfare matters, and will continue to do so as the Programme develops.