Deer Management Strategic Board minutes: April 2025

Attendees and apologies

• Robyn Chapman - SG ND (Secretariat)
• Jamie Hammond - NatureScot
• Donald Henderson - Deputy Director, SG ND (Chair)
• Simon Jones - LLTNPA
• Doug Knox - FLS (via MS Teams)
• Robbie Kernahan - NatureScot
• Cameron Maxwell - Scottish Forestry
• Grant Moir - CNPA
• Paul Roberts - NatureScot

Apologies 

• Brodie Wilson – SG ND
• John Kerr – SG ARE

 

Items and actions

Welcome and review                              

Donald Henderson welcomed everyone to the meeting. The group agreed the minutes from the meeting of 10 December 2024 and there were no outstanding action points from previous meetings that would not be captured under the existing agenda items.

The group reflected on their morning site visit around Oxygen Conservation’s, Dorback Estate, noting that partnership with neighbouring land owners and local communities is crucial to changing land use from traditional land management usage, such as sporting to the restoration of natural woodlands.

AP (SG) – Robyn Chapman to publish the minutes of meeting of 10 December 2024on the Scottish Government website now that they are agreed.

Agenda item 3 – legislative update

The group discussed the current legislative position of the Scottish Government’s deer management proposals which have been included in the Natural Environment Bill, published on 19 February 2025.

NatureScot and CNPA advised they were due to attend the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee (RAIC) Evidence Session on 30 April 2025.

The RAIC call for views on the Bill is open and closes on 9 May 2025.

The timetable for the remainder of the Bill’s passage had not been confirmed at the time of the meeting.  However, Parliament has now agreed that Stage 1 will conclude on 31 October.  Stage 2 will begin immediately thereafter, with the closing dates for stage 2 and the dates for stage 3 to be agreed by the Parliament in due course.

AP (NS) – Draft scenarios as to how the new proposed regulatory powers would be used across a variety of landscapes in Scotland, including both upland and lowland examples.

Agenda item 4 - Deer Cull Return Data

Following a discussion at the Strategic Deer Board meeting of 10 December 2024, NatureScot were asked to provide Board Members with a paper outlining a potential strategy for improving data on Scotland’s deer cull.

This paper was circulated in advance of the meeting and outlined the gaps identified in the available data as well as the actions being taken to address the gaps and the associated costs.

The board welcomed the paper and had a full discussion exploring how to proceed with a strategy to improve existing data on cull returns. FLS noted that their grid reference based cull return data gathering system was due to be updated in the coming years and there would be appetite to collaborate to try to obtain a national cull return data set.

AP (NS) – Set up a cross organisation work group, consisting of board represented bodies as well as eNGOs to look at available data with a progress report being produced by the end of the year 

Agenda item 5 - NatureScot Deer App Update

NatureScot have developed and tested a smartphone Deer App.

The App has been trialled by NatureScot staff at Beinn Eighe and Creag Meagaidh National Nature Reserves. The App was also used by partcipants in the Pilot Incentive Schemes (south Loch Ness and central belt).

The Board welcomed the update and the switch from land based cull returns to individual based cull returns.

NatureScot expected a September/October roll out of the App to selected stakeholders before implementation across the sector in 2026.

Agenda Item 6 – Incentive Pilot schemes update

NatureScot provided Board Members with a summary of the outcomes of their two pilot incentive schemes launched in October 2024 and figures from the CNPA run pilot.

The schemes situated in Central Scotland and South Loch Ness are operated well with 903 deer (which were additional to the base threshold agreed) were culled on 28 properties covering 50,747ha, at a cost of £56,630.

A full paper is available on the NatureScot website.

Lessons learned from the pilots included the differing cull levels between regional areas for example, south loch ness is an area with a small number of larger land holdings whereas central Scotland is a large area with a lot of smaller land holdings.

The Board were keen to understand next steps, including where the pilots would run for the next financial year and if the pilots would expand to additional areas. NatureScot confirmed the 3 pilots would be repeated in 25/26 with the scheme expanding to an additional two locations.

Any other business

NatureScot requested that ‘Sika Deer Strategy’ be included as an item at the next meeting.

The next meeting is due to be held on 11 June 2025. Given the April meeting was pushed back from March, the Board would like to explore identifying a date in July 2025. A venue will be determined nearer the time.