Seòmar agus comataidhean

The funding and income that Forestry and Land Scotland receives from the Government is one element of the organisation’s overall income. The cut has largely been to the capital funding that is available for Forestry and Land Scotland, which it would normally use for land acquisition and tree planting.

However, given that we are constrained in capital terms, we are trying to think about how we can best utilise the capital. We have allocated more funding through the forestry grant scheme, because most of the value that we can deliver for the money that is spent in relation to the hectares of trees that are planted comes from the forestry grant scheme as opposed to Forestry and Land Scotland, because it is more expensive to plant trees on the public estate.

It is not necessarily the case that the money has been taken from Forestry and Land Scotland and given to Scottish Forestry. In looking at the overall capital budget, we have decided to prioritise putting our capital into the forestry grant scheme. There is also the funding that we have put in the budget for peatland, which will constrain the number of trees that Forestry and Land Scotland can plant on its own estate because of the lack of capital funding. Again, it is more expensive for Forestry and Land Scotland to deliver such woodland creation than it is to deliver it through the forestry grant scheme.

Yes, it is. The additional funding that we have put in through the forestry grant scheme this year will help to deliver the planting targets for the coming year, which are set out in the climate change plan.

10:00

I am not at a stage today to be able to outline that or give a firm commitment, but I emphasise again that we recognise how important that work is. I engage regularly with Confor and the Woodland Trust, and one of their key asks in the budget process was for a recognition of how important our rainforests are.

A key point for me is that I want to ensure that we do not lose any of the progress that we have made. I am keen to see whether we can find any way through that will at least help us to progress that work. I am happy to follow up with any solutions if we find them, but I just wanted to let you know that it is not as though the budget has been cut and that work has fallen off the radar; we are trying to see what we can do within the allocations.

First of all, £150 million has been identified and will be invested over the next four years to deliver the new vessels, one of which is a new marine protection vessel while the other is a science vessel. It is important to note that this will be funded through the capital allocation rather than through the marine directorate’s operations budget.

I would add that there has been a resource increase of £0.8 million on last year’s autumn budget revision position. There has been a slight reduction in the capital that has been made available to the portfolio, but we expect to deliver everything that we have set out within the overall capital and resource allocations. It is also important to remember the various pieces of work and efficiencies that have been undertaken and that are on-going within the marine directorate. I reiterate that funding has been identified and will be invested, over the next four years, towards the replacement marine vessels.

10:30

It is not included in the allocations for this financial year; it is identified in the spending review.

I will have to check. Iain Wallace might have some information on that. If not, I am more than happy to follow up on that specific query, because I do not have that information or that letter in my hand. I am sorry about that.

I do not know that off the top of my head. Are you talking about our work in collaboration with various people?

I would have to follow up on the specific details. A number of different collaborations take place, including with the industry itself. We have undertaken work with the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland, and a number of different papers have been published over the past year. However, we would have to follow up with the specific details of some of those partnerships and the work that we have taken forward in that regard. It is quite a broad area, but I hope that that information will emphasise to the committee the range of partnerships that take place.

Iain Wallace might be able to think of some specific examples that would be helpful, or it might be better for us just to follow up with the committee on that.

We know how valuable the marine fund Scotland has been for industry and for coastal communities over the years that it has been in operation. To give the committee an idea of some of the demand for the fund over the past year, we had applications that would have totalled over £30 million, and we had just over £14 million available, so we know that the appetite is there for that capital and resource funding.

We are constantly looking at the fund to see how it is operating and whether it is delivering what we need. The aims are largely modelled on the blue economy outcomes that we set out, but we are currently looking at what that looks like and whether there are any potential changes over the coming year. Nevertheless, the fund has been really valuable. We have also included the uplift that would have come from the fisheries and coastal growth fund for the coming year, increasing the funding that will be available this year through the marine fund Scotland.

10:45