Seòmar agus comataidhean

As I just outlined in relation to the proposal by the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee, I want to consider the issue further and take advice on it. I will then follow up with the committee on when we could provide an outline of what the plan will include.

It is important to remember that co-development with farmers and crofters is critical to absolutely everything that we are doing in the bill and to all the secondary legislation that we will bring forward, including the detail of the enhanced measures and the tiers of the future framework. A just transition is critical to all of that as well.

We want to develop schemes that we know will work and that will deliver the objectives that we have set out in the bill, but we want to do so in a way that works for farmers and crofters. We want to develop that with them. The detail that comes from doing that, and from following what we have set out in the route map about when information will become available, will, ultimately, populate the rural support plan. I like to think that, by the time the plan comes forward, it will not be a surprise to anyone, because we have outlined in the route map when different parts of the information about the future framework will be published and become available.

The first point to clarify is that we need the powers that are in the bill before we can formally bring forward the rural support plan.

However, I understand what the convener has set out in relation to the proposal by the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee. I would like to take more advice on that to see whether, and when, we might be able to bring forward at least a draft of the plan. I am happy to follow up on that with the committee and provide more information on when we could provide an initial draft of the rural support plan.

We have said that we need the new powers in the bill in order to introduce the plan and that we intend to introduce it in 2025.

I absolutely appreciate that, but that is where what we have set out in the route map comes in. I am not focusing on the rural support plan at the moment because, as John Kerr has outlined, a lot of what is in the route map will be part of that. There is information there, and more information will be coming along the timeline that we have set out. The rural support plan will not change what we have in the route map; it is about bringing together the different pieces and showing how we will deliver on the vision and against our objectives.

Another important point that you have raised, but which I have not touched on, relates to monitoring and evaluation against the objectives that we have set out. That will be built into how we move forward, because we need to know that we are improving and to find a way of measuring and evaluating that so that we know that we are delivering on the bill’s objectives. That will, of course, be embedded in the work that we are taking forward.

Again, I do not know whether the committee has any particular comments or suggestions to make on that. I believe that the matters to be considered, which we have set out in section 3, cover what we need that to do, but, again, I ask the committee whether its members have any particular suggestions to make or whether they feel that anything is missing from the list that should be considered but has not been.

I want to address your first point about the list of matters to be considered and highlight and emphasise the fact that all the areas that you have mentioned are hugely important. More policies and legislation are coming down the line that are closely interlinked with agriculture and the future framework that we will have. I want to reassure the committee that we are considering all the policies that you have outlined, some of which are mentioned in the policy memorandum. The fact is that we must adhere to legislation that is already in place, and our rural support plan proposals are not being developed in isolation, without any consideration being given to those areas, given that, as I have mentioned, so many of them are integral to what we are doing.

I am sorry—what was the second matter that you raised?

It is important to have it for exactly for that reason. It is about ensuring that we are looking at those matters and that they feature as part of the rural support plan.

If we look at the matters that are set out, we see that we have our objectives, the climate change plan, agriculture, forestry and rural land use. From the evidence that you have taken and from some of the discussion that we have had today, we know that there are very specific things that people would like to be included in there. Of course, we take a lot of those matters into consideration—and we have to, where that is legally binding and where we are working across other areas of policy. However, it is important for us to at least set out the matters that we would be looking to include as part of the plan rather than not do that.

You are right that the status quo exists until such time as we make transitions through the route map, as we have set out. We do not want any cliff edges in relation to support. We are not intending to surprise anybody with anything that comes forward. What is important is that we have the powers under the framework to enable us to consider such issues.

I do not know whether John Kerr wants to say anything else on that.

I understand the committee’s concern about that. That is why we are taking an overall framework approach to the powers that we are taking. Ultimately, we need to have those powers, otherwise we would automatically rule out being able to do, discuss or take forward a lot of things. That speaks to the changes that we are looking to introduce. We have talked a lot about the route map and setting out some of the information.

I hope that I have been able to emphasise and illustrate throughout the meeting the importance of co-development—working with our farmers and crofters—in developing all of this. It is not in our interests or in the interests of the wider industry for there to be any surprises or cliff edges. We are categorically committed to not providing that for our farmers and crofters. Ultimately, as I have set out, we want to design the system with them and to see what mechanism will work best.

We will take seriously any recommendations that the committee makes in that regard, but we have also had correspondence with the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee about the powers that we are taking and the instruments that we are looking to use in relation to them. We have touched on a couple of areas in which that committee had recommendations, including moving from the negative to the affirmative procedure or reconsidering one of the other instruments, but the committee was broadly content with the responses that we gave in relation to the powers there. As it stands, I am content with where we are on the basis of what the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee has expressed to us.