Committee
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee 17 February 2026 [Draft]
17 Feb 2026 · S6 · Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Item of business
NatureScot (Annual Report and Accounts and Future Priorities)
I want to briefly ask something that is supplementary to the deputy convener’s question. Nick, in your opening comments, you talked about the complexity of your organisation’s work but also said that, at times, it can be contentious. It is important that we see in writing some of the data behind what has just been discussed. I am going back a long time to when I worked as a planning officer but, often, the quality of information determines how quickly a decision can be made or a response given. It will be important to see that in writing. Given what you said about some of the abuse that has been levelled at your staff, we need to take the heat out of the issue and deal in facts.I turn to the biodiversity delivery plan. We have heard about the nature and climate emergency and the need to halt the decline of biodiversity by 2030. You did not sound entirely confident that targets would be met in relation to woodlands. Will you talk us generally through the key milestones that need to be delivered early in the next parliamentary session if Scotland is to have a chance of halting the decline of biodiversity by 2030?
In the same item of business
09:00
The Convener
Con
The second item of business is an evidence session with NatureScot. This is a general check-in with the body about its annual report and corporate plan and s...
Nick Halfhide (NatureScot)
Good morning. Thank you very much for inviting us along. On behalf of my chairman, I offer his apologies. He had very much hoped to be with us today but, unf...
The Convener
Con
Thank you, Nick. I will give you an easy question to start with. You have developed a new corporate strategy to take you through to 2030 and you have told us...
Nick Halfhide
We are focusing on five areas of work for the next four years and I will run through those if I may. They are all important and must be done together if we a...
The Convener
Con
What are the key challenges to all of that? You have spoken a lot about the environment and ecosystems, but will you talk also about the thing that is someti...
Nick Halfhide
I will say little about the economic side of things and then invite Pete Higgins to say more about health and social wellbeing.The week before last, I spoke ...
Professor Pete Higgins (NatureScot)
I have been an observer of the work that NatureScot has been doing for a considerable time. Over the past 15 or 20 years, I have noticed that the trajectory ...
The Convener
Con
We are going to move on to other questions. I know that committee members get bored when I say this but, for the record, because you have mentioned farming a...
Mark Ruskell (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Green)
Green
Staying on the theme of people, you are Scotland’s national access agency and yet, looking at your corporate plan for 2026 to 2030, I do not see a focus on e...
Nick Halfhide
As we were developing the corporate plan, we included references to access, so it is in there, but you are right that it is not our top priority. Our statuto...
Mark Ruskell
Green
Would you accept, though, that you are Scotland’s national access agency? If it is not you, who is it that maintains the strategic overview of access rights,...
Nick Halfhide
We absolutely do that, and that is one of our many different functions. The point that I was perhaps not expressing very well was that we will be doing that,...
Mark Ruskell
Green
I thought that you had a corporate priority around the public, public access to nature and that side of things. Education and engagement are really important...
Nick Halfhide
Yes.
Mark Ruskell
Green
Do you see things through that lens?
Nick Halfhide
I will bring in Pete Higgins in a minute, as this is his area of expertise. We absolutely do see that as important, although we are only one of many actors i...
Mark Ruskell
Green
So, you are not taking a lead on public access.I turn to the subject of species licensing. It would be good to know exactly where you are with the species li...
Nick Halfhide
We have submitted the species licensing review to ministers. It rests with them at the moment.
Mark Ruskell
Green
What are the headlines?
Nick Halfhide
The headlines are that we feel that we should be doing some charging for it. That is one aspect. Our advice was clear: we think that we are following the var...
Mark Ruskell
Green
Have you assessed the compliance of species licensing with international law and international conventions? I will give you an example of that. It did not ge...
Nick Halfhide
I do not know the answer to that. Determining whether something is legally compliant is a role for the courts. In our implementation of the law, we will seek...
Mark Ruskell
Green
Let us use that example again, then. Would that practice be compliant with the Bern convention?
Nick Halfhide
I do not know. I would have to seek legal advice.
Mark Ruskell
Green
Okay. It just seems odd. You are Scotland’s national nature agency as well as Scotland’s national access agency. If you do not assess compliance with interna...
Nick Halfhide
As I have said, we will seek legal advice on those things, just as the Scottish Government will do when it is proposing amendments. I am perhaps missing the ...
Mark Ruskell
Green
Let me ask you a straight question. When you were doing the species licensing review, did you review whether species licences that are currently issued by Na...
Nick Halfhide
I will need to check. I assume that we did, but I do not have that detail to mind.
Mark Ruskell
Green
Okay.I will move on. A key performance analysis in your annual report concerns the condition of protected areas. We know that woodlands are in serious declin...