Seòmar agus comataidhean

The opening of a Scottish Government office in Warsaw is currently under review given ongoing budget pressures.

I met with members of The Oversight Board for The Promise on Tuesday 4th February 2025. I also attended the Parliamentary reception on 27th February, organised by The Oversight Board and attended by their members, to celebrate publication of the Third Report by The Oversight Board.

The Scottish Government provides an annual grant to Scottish Mountain Rescue, which they distribute onwards to all of Scotland’s volunteer mountain rescue teams including Glencoe and Cairngorm which are not affiliated with Scottish Mountain Rescue, according to an agreed and established formula. Information from Scottish Mountain Rescue on the funding that each team has received in the last 5 years is set out in the following table:

Climate change is clearly driving more extreme weather, and this summer has brought very dry conditions across Scotland, particularly in the east, resulting in eight catchment areas now experiencing significant water scarcity. In response, we are implementing Scotland’s National Water Scarcity Plan in collaboration with SEPA and Scottish Water to support those affected.

Since spring, we have worked with SEPA and partners to communicate water scarcity risks to producers. SEPA has also contacted all impacted abstraction license holders directly to offer advice and is working closely with affected businesses. While this is a challenging time, SEPA are reporting encouraging levels of compliance on the ground.

To reduce the impact on agriculture, the Scottish Government’s Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) promotes sustainable land management, including water-use efficiency and water management measures such as irrigation lagoons.

Since 2024, AECS has raised the grant ceiling for irrigation lagoons to £40,000 and enabled applications to be made as either a simplified standalone item or as part of a wider application. Additionally, the Future Farming Investment Scheme launched this year, offering £14 million in capital funding to support improvements in efficiency, nature restoration, and climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Recognising the increasing challenges posed by climate change, we remain committed to continuing with reformed direct payments. These provide farmers with vital financial stability, helping them to plan and continue producing food sustainably in the face of more frequent and severe weather events.

The Scottish Government provides an annual grant to Scottish Mountain Rescue, which they distribute onwards to all of Scotland’s individual volunteer teams. This distribution follows an agreed and established formula that takes into account relative changes in team activity levels, alongside a range of other relevant factors. Scotland is the only part of the UK in which volunteer mountain rescue teams are supported in this way. While the overall budget for this grant is determined on an annual basis, the Scottish Mountain Rescue grant has, for this year, been included in the Scottish Government’s Fairer Funding pilot. This inclusion offers increased assurance that funding will be maintained at no less than the current level until at least March 2027.

Whilst the Scottish Government does not provide direct funding to create community growing sites, since 2012 we have awarded nearly £2.5 million to expand and encourage food growing skills and access to community growing sites across the country. This includes £100,000 awarded to Green Action Trust annually since 2021 to deliver the Growing Food Together Fund. On average, around 9 to 10 groups or projects are supported by this funding each year.

To best utilise the funding available and maximise the number of groups it can support, the fund has understandably prioritised expanding existing growing spaces (such as through the addition of new planters, polytunnels or other similar infrastructure) rather than providing funding to establish entirely new sites.

NatureScot did not hold any direct discussions with (a) NFU Scotland and (b) Scottish Land and Estates regarding its recent decision to grant licences for the release of six beaver families at two sites in the River Beauly catchment

The main engagement for conservation translocations is carried out by the applicants, in this case, Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS).

The FLS application followed two years of engagement by Trees for Life and FLS. The Abriachan application followed local community consultation hosted by the Abriachan Forest Trust and Scotland the Big Picture. Scottish land and Estates and NFUS were invited to attend a consultation event, which NFUS attended.

The Affric engagement reports can be found here:

https://treesforlife.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Glen-Affric-and-Strathglass-beaver-consultation-report.pdf

https://treesforlife.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Deciding-Matters-Beaver-Consultation-Report-28-May-2024.pdf

NatureScot received correspondence from NFUS on this topic on behalf of members prior to and after the application was submitted by FLS.

As Licensing Authority and recognising there remained concerns amongst land and fisheries managers in Beauly and Strathglass about beaver release proposals, NatureScot carried out further engagement over the summer 2025 to better understand these concerns. Site visits were requested by 12 landholdings and three groups representing fishing interests. NatureScot staff met with the land and fisheries managers directly on site to discuss their concerns. A representative from NFUS was present at one of these meetings.

At this time, there are no defined plans to incorporate AI into the RP&S platform. The Agriculture Reform Programme is currently leading the development of a Future Operating Model for ARE which is carefully considering the capabilities required to deliver the Vision for Agriculture/policy objectives. This will include fully exploring the use of appropriate digital capabilities and technologies which can improve our services and the customer experience of our users however as stated at this time, there are no plans to incorporate AI into the RP&S platform.

In the Highlands and Islands region, there are currently 9 Historic Environment Scotland sites which are temporarily closed. Within the Highlands and Islands region, there are no Historic Environment Scotland sites which are permanently closed.

The temporarily closed sites are:

Aberdeenshire Council:

Glenbuchat Castle

Huntly Castle

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar:

Kisimul Castle

Highland Council:

Castle of Old Wick

Moray Council:

Bishops House, Elgin

Dallas Dhu Distillery

Orkney Islands Council:

Eynhallow Church

Tormiston Mill

Shetland Islands Council:

Scalloway Castle

Any further queries from the member regarding the day-to-day operational matters of Historic Environment Scotland, including information relating to any repair and maintenance works of any specific site, are best answered directly by Historic Environment Scotland.

This is an operational matter for the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and the information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

Some of this information can be found in the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh‘s (RBGE) Annual Reports and Accounts: Accounts | Corporate Information | What We Do | Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.