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Yes—the islands programme, in particular, and the capital allocation. As I have said to the committee previously and throughout the session today, the capital budget is extremely constrained. As I said in response to Dr Allan’s question, the allocation for the islands programme is not the only capital funding that will go to our islands this year. We have the islands growth deal as well. The heads of terms for that were signed towards the start of 2021, and it will see £50 million from the Scottish Government and £50 million from the UK Government go towards capital funding for our islands. It is important to bear in mind that that will come forward over the next few years.

Given the restrictions that I face in the capital budget, it is really a question of trying to utilise that as best we can. What we have tried to do—and what we are trying to do for the coming year—is to make improvements to that programme, particularly based on the feedback and the evidence that the committee has heard. I outlined some of the changes that have been made in the letter that I sent to the committee.

Especially for those small businesses, the scheme that we have open has some of the strictest criteria that exist for such a scheme, which is not fair. Again, that is why we are undertaking work to see what improvements we can make.

You are right in saying that there has been a £14 million increase in the budget for Marine Scotland. The committee is, no doubt, aware of the statement that was made yesterday by the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport about the energy strategy in Scotland and our ambitions for offshore renewables. The extra funding will increase the capacity to deal with that through planning and consenting. We also have strong environmental ambitions in relation to the highly protected marine area network that we want to roll out. That will enable us to better deal with the offshore renewable element of that work as well as the environmental considerations.

I will bring in Erica Clarkson, who may wish to provide more detail, but the islands team and its work have been pivotal in efforts to overcome the problem of silo operations and ensure that we have coherent, joined-up thinking across Government. An example is that we are developing a remote and rural and islands housing action plan, and I know that islands officials have been engaged with housing teams. We want to make sure that we are working with communities so that we do not experience the type of problems that you mention. Erica Clarkson can expand on that.

If there was to be further funding for the energy efficiency of homes, it would probably not fall to my portfolio. However, I am happy to follow that up with my Government colleagues and ask them to write to you with further information.

We are looking at the strategic objectives in the islands plan and ensuring that the annual reports that we produce contain actions against each of them. We need to ensure that we are dealing with the issues that are of the greatest importance to our island communities and tackling the problems that they face. Looking at some of these issues will, no doubt, form part of that.

You referred to the increase in funding that we have received from the UK Government, but, as I outlined in one of my previous responses, that equates to a 4.8 per cent cut since 2021. The inflationary pressures that we have seen—I think that inflation hit 11.1 per cent in October—mean that whatever increase we have had will always be worth less. When we look at the EU replacement funding—

First of all, thank you for raising the monitor farm programme, which I neglected to mention in my response. I was really excited to announce that initiative. Funding of £1.4 million will be provided for the programme over the next few years. We know that the programme works in terms of engagement, and that it encourages the sharing of knowledge and expertise. Undertaking a second round of the programme is really important.

Of course, we have done that with agri-tourism as well. Again, it is really important to see that really exciting part of the sector continue to grow and develop.

We continue to invest through schemes. We are funding the monitor farm programme through the knowledge transfer and innovation fund. We are investing £36 million in the agri-environment climate scheme over the coming year. I have mentioned other schemes, too.

You mentioned the Nature Friendly Farming Network, with which I have had quite a lot of engagement. It is a fantastic network. I have regular engagement with our key stakeholders. We also have an agriculture, biodiversity and climate change network, which we are encouraging people to get involved with, to share the knowledge and expertise that we have.

In my opening statement, I said that one of the priorities is the transformation to net zero and becoming a net zero economy. We know that we have to fund that and that we need to help with that transition where we can. That is why we have provided funding across those various schemes—to continue with that work, to invest in it, to drive the change that we want to see and, ultimately, to deliver on our vision for agriculture, too.

What do you mean? Do you mean potentially extending that or bringing it forward? Obviously, we would want to see what impact there has been. We will monitor that after 31 December to see how the approach has worked and whether it has had that impact.

As far as I am aware, this is the first time that we have introduced the regulations. My officials are nodding. I believe that this is the first time that we have done that. Given the nature of AI and what we have seen this year, the situation is unprecedented; we have never seen an outbreak like it. That is why we have had to introduce the regulations. There are unique circumstances.

They would not be able to be sold past that point. That is what we set out in the regulations. They can be sold only until 31 December.