Current status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 1 December 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how much money was budgeted for agricultural support payments in each of the last five years, and how much of this budget remained unspent at the end of each of those last five years.
Agricultural support payments are funded through a range of budget lines in the Rural Affairs, Islands and Land Reform portfolio. The following table sets out the total budget for the relevant budget lines for each of the previous five years and how much was unspent at the end of each year (based on the outturn for each budget). In 2020-21 and 2021-22, these figures were significantly affected by EU funding. The total budgets shown are a combination of EU and national funding, excluding the corresponding EU receipts.
2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | |||||||||
Revised Budget | Unspent | Revised Budget | Unspent | Revised Budget | Unspent | Revised Budget | Unspent | Revised Budget | Unspent | ||||
£670m | £27m | £619m | £40m | £601m | £14m | £594m | £26m | £587m | £16m | ||||
The data is provided by financial year, based on the final revised budgets for Pillar 1 Basic and Greening Payments, Other Pillar 1 Payments, Less Favoured Area Support Scheme, Convergence Funding, Agri Environmental Measures, Agricultural Transformation Fund, Forestry, Business Development and National Test Programme. Together these budgets funded the following agricultural schemes:
Basic Payment Scheme (including Greening & Young Farmer Payments)
Financial Discipline Reimbursements
Voluntary Coupled Support Schemes
Less Favoured Area Support Scheme
Agri-Environment Climate Scheme
Farm Environment Assessment
Beef Efficiency Scheme
Habitat Scheme
Agricultural Floodbank Repair Scheme
Farm Woodlands Scheme
Knowledge Transfer and Innovation Fund
Crofting Agricultural Grants Scheme
Food Processing and Marketing
Small Farms Grant Scheme
New Entrants Start-up Grant
New Entrant Capital Grant
Young Farmers Start Up Grant
Preparing for Sustainable Farming
Sustainable Agriculture Capital Grant Scheme
Agricultural Transformation Fund