Further to the publication yesterday of the Scottish Government’s commissioned review on increased investigatory powers for the Scottish SPCA (here), this issue was raised in the Scottish Parliament yesterday during Portfolio Questions.
New Environment Minister Gillian Martin responded to questions as follows:
This is a fairly positive response from the Minister but yet again, we’re left waiting for a formal Government response to the review, even though in February we were told that the Government’s response would be published at the same time as the review (i.e. yesterday).
I don’t understand why we’ve had to wait eight months for this very short review to be published (it was submitted to Government in Oct 2022) if the Government hasn’t even managed to cobble together a formal response yet. What was the delay for? And given that the issue has been tabled during the recent evidence sessions during the Stage 1 scrutiny of the Wildlife & Muirburn (Scotland) Bill, wouldn’t it have been useful to have had this review available in time for discussions?
So now we wait again….more bloody can-kicking, 12 years on. It’s tedious and unimpressive governance. Nevertheless, kudos to Mark Ruskell MSP (Scottish Greens) who has been pushing on this issue for many years now.
Raptor Persecution UK 
Wouldn’t it be nice, just once, to see a government minister commit absolutely to doing the right thing as soon as possible, rather than prevaricating and leaving things open to be dragged out even longer?
It’s like every climate change action, every environmental commitment, it is always 10 / 20 / 30 years hence, never “We will start on this tomorrow!”
Spot on!
Are we surprised there’s been no formal Government response, this is the Scottish Government, at least they haven’t squashed the can……………………..well not yet!
Whilst not having anything to do with ongoing concern for lack of progress from Scottish and other governments in respect of wildlife crime, can I ask you Ruth why all attachments from emails tell me they are ‘suspicious links’ . With options to not open and open anyway. It seems suspicious to me that this keeps happening? Any thoughts. Thank you
Isn’t this something of a surprise? “Meghan Gallacher (Central Scotland) (Con) I had the pleasure of joining the Scottish raptor study group…” and “However, the team also highlighted incidents of raptor persecution…” among other enlightened comments.
It is reported that Gallacher is the Tory Deputy Leader, too. What’s going on? They voted en bloc against the Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Act, as far as I could tell.