Whether it has received from the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute a revised report and statistics on the economic impacts of banning hu…

The Macaulay Land Use Research Institute has revised that section of its report on the economic impact of a ban on hunting with dogs in Scotland relating to the possible job losses amongst employees of mounted hunts, subscribers and followers. The institute did this of their own volition when it became clear to them that information which they had been given, and on which they had based their original assessments, was incomplete. A copy of the revised section of the report was passed to the Scottish Executive and has since been sent to the Rural Affairs Committee.I am grateful to the institute for carrying out this further work, at no additional cost to the Executive, in the interests of providing the best possible impartial information with which to inform the debate on the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Bill. The Executive has no view on the conclusions in either the original report or the revised section.