Over half of Scotland’s public bodies are not fulfilling a legal requirement to report on actions they are taking to encourage biodiversity.

The Scottish Biodiversity Strategy Report to the Scottish Parliament 2014 – 2016 commissioned by the Scottish Government outlines what has been done so far to meet the 2020 Challenge Document and Scotland’s Biodiversity: It’s in Your Hands (2004) . These make up Scotland’s Biodiversity Strategy.

The Public Audit and Post-Legislative Scrutiny Committee of the Scottish Parliament is concerned that :

‘ more than half of public bodies haven’t completed biodiversity reports….“25% had not produced a report. We did not hear from the remaining 31% and could not find their report online”.’

 Committee Convener, Jenny Marra MSP, said:

“In our Committee, we have a duty to check that law in the Scottish Parliament is being complied with and is fit for its purpose.

“The public have brought to our attention that they have concerns that not enough public bodies are fulfilling legal requirements.

“Therefore, we will be doing a short piece of post-legislative scrutiny on biodiversity reporting and asking why some public bodies are not fulfilling this legal duty and what difficulties they are having with it.”

Organisations and individuals are invited to make a written submission to the Committee setting out their views on the following questions:

• How well do you believe public bodies understand the biodiversity and reporting duties placed upon them?
• Do you believe that public bodies are adequately resourced to comply with the biodiversity and reporting duties?
• Do you think the requirement to report on the biodiversity duty leads to effective actions for improving and conserving biodiversity by public bodies?
• Are there any changes that could improve the actions taken by public bodies in respect of the biodiversity and reporting duties?

Instructions on how to submit your responses can be found here.

Additional Information: Policy on treatment of written evidence by subject and mandatory committees

Closing date Friday 23 March 2018.

Happy Valley, Orkney