Seòmar agus comataidhean

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.

We had £26.6 million available in last year’s budget.

I echo all the points that you have made about the importance of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. The RBGE covers four sites across Scotland, and undertakes vital work in respect of its collections and research capability, as well as running the sites and holding events for visitors.

Committee members will be aware that there has been a slight reduction in the published budget of £1.8 million, which is a 5 per cent reduction to the capital element of the budget. I want to highlight that the reduction in the capital element of the budget relates to the phasing of the biomes project and how that is working at the moment—it is not a cut to the project. That is why the spend is set out as it is. Overall, there is a £58 million contribution to the Edinburgh biomes project, of which £50 million comes from the low carbon fund, with a further £8 million coming from the Scottish Government. It is a hugely important project, which is why the on-going commitment to its funding is so important and will be vital for the botanic garden.

Absolutely, and I emphasise that point as well. I met the board just before Christmas to get an update on some of the key pieces of work that the RBGE is doing at the moment. I re-emphasise that commitment from the Scottish Government: we are still committed to the biomes project and the reduction in the funding is only because of the phasing of the project—the overall commitment still stands.

Work on that is happening just now. Last year, I announced some changes to the forestry grant scheme because, obviously, we want more riparian planting and more agroforestry. The grants and the rates of grant that we have made available for smaller schemes are hugely important in encouraging that work, too, and it is important that we continue that encouragement.

It is all about our engaging with the sector now to see how we can best utilise the available budget, and that is why the summit in December was so important. Some of the actions that were identified related to improvements that we can make to the woodland development process and how we can better develop people across the sector. All of that work can continue.

We all want full utilisation of the budget to ensure that we get as many trees in the ground as possible, and that work will continue. I want to ensure that we utilise the available budget that we have as well as we possibly can, and we will, of course, engage with key stakeholders as we look to do that.

Again, that is where the engagement that is happening right now and how we move forward with the available budget will be absolutely critical.

As I set out in one of my previous responses, 14,000 hectares’ worth of approvals are coming through. We want to make sure that we get all those hectares planted and that we utilise the available budget as best we can. That means that there could be some tweaks in how we award the funding in order to make sure that we maximise its impact as much as we can.

Ultimately, we do not want to be in a position of having really helped to drive forward the industry—whether that is nurseries, timber or the wider industry—and having encouraged farmers and crofters to do more agroforestry and riparian planting, then seeing that scaled back. We want to continue with the momentum that has been building.

You are absolutely right that we have not met all of our planting targets in previous years. That is why we had the woodland summit towards the end of last year to try to address the significant shortfall from the target of the previous year.

We have been encouraged by the level of approvals that have come through for this year, which is why I want to make sure that we utilise all the available funding. We will continue to work with the sector to ensure that we are all working together to deliver the goals that we all want. We want a thriving forestry sector because it is worth so much to our economy, as well as to our timber supply, and not least because of its climate impact. We want to make sure that we work together with the sector into the future.

Yes. I am sorry for launching myself into that question. I will touch on the point that Ms McAllan made about looking at the issue from a Marine Scotland perspective.

There was an increase in budget for Marine Scotland last year, specifically in relation to offshore wind. There has been a slight decrease in the overall marine directorate budget, but that is because a number of different recoupment controls and operational efficiencies have been considered for generating some of the savings that are required. There has also been a focus on maximising the income streams to the directorate. Obviously, revenues come into the directorate from commercial science activity, licensing fees and energy consenting fees.

It is also important to highlight the sheer scale of the work that the marine directorate undertakes. You asked about offshore energy consenting, which is a huge element of the work. Another vital component is our marine science and research. The directorate also has enforcement and compliance costs in relation to our fisheries and seafood.

I wanted to add some more to the context and to set out the overall budget position within the area.

I thank the committee for inviting me to give evidence today. My colleague the Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Net Zero and Just Transition has just mentioned the difficult financial backdrop that we face in relation to this budget. Against that backdrop, the decisions that we have taken are driven by our values, and they prioritise the three missions that we have.

In my portfolio, the impact of Brexit continues to harm Scotland’s rural and island businesses and communities, and it also creates new challenges every year for us to respond to. However, the budgets that have been allocated to my portfolio will continue to make a vital difference to our rural, coastal and island economies. As I did for the previous financial year, this year I have prioritised the vital direct cash injection of £600 million that my portfolio makes into the economy for rural, agriculture, marine and island communities.

We are now providing the most generous package of direct support for farmers and crofters anywhere in the United Kingdom, and we are committed to getting that money to people and businesses as early as we can every year to help them to meet the on-going inflationary and cost of living pressures.

As the committee will be aware, my portfolio has expanded to include responsibility for peatland, land reform and land use, and forestry and woodlands, and I have committed to maintaining our record world-leading investment in peatland. Investment in new woodland creation—planting—will continue to contribute to our climate change targets and net zero ambitions. As I said when I recently attended the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee, we have set very ambitious planting targets, and the level of funding that we can provide within the budget means that it will be extremely difficult to meet those. However, we will continue to build on the positive work that we have already done, and the planting levels that are achievable within this budget will continue to exceed those in other areas of the UK.

I have also committed to delivering agri-environment investment, including the agricultural transformation fund, which is part of an overall budget of £30 million. We also have the Scottish land fund, which will continue to support many community groups to acquire assets that will make a difference to them in tackling challenges in their communities.

By maintaining the £14 million budget for the marine fund Scotland, we are continuing to acknowledge the vital role that our seas play in supporting activity to improve and restore the marine environment, as well as supporting the wider economy in coastal communities through fishing and aquaculture.

I think that I speak for all my Cabinet colleagues when I say that this Government is committed to doing all that we can, with all that we have, to support our priorities in rural industries and sectors, through this portfolio and others.