234.This section establishes a statutory obligation for ongoing monitoring and reporting of the number of gulls in Scotland by requiring SNH to prepare and publish a report on the gull population in coastal and urban areas of Scotland. There must be a report in respect of each reporting period. The first reporting period is the period of 5 years beginning with the day after Royal Assent, and then each subsequent period of 5 years.
235.The report must set out: information about the gull population in both coastal and urban areas, shifts or trends in distribution of gulls between coastal and urban areas, and anything else that SNH consider appropriate and relates to the gull population in coastal and urban areas.
236.“Gull” is defined for the purposes of this section as being five species of gull, set out in subsection (4).
The Act Gulls Section 45 – Report on gull population