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The Scottish Government has embraced the Community Wealth Building (CWB) approach to economic development as it is geared to helping local businesses and communities own a greater stake in how their local economy functions. The CWB model involves local authorities and their community planning partners ensuring that collective investment decisions focus on how local economies can be helped to grow and flourish. Practical benefits can include more local, good quality jobs; improved access to public contracts for local businesses; more land being placed in community ownership or developed for the benefit of the community; and support being offered to new businesses exploring employee ownership or other innovative models.

We are working with local authorities to help them frame strategic CWB action plans and have committed to introducing CWB legislation during this session of the Scottish Parliament. Our objective is to embed the CWB approach as a strategic economic development policy. Many actions taken across the policy spectrum will contribute to CWB and creation of a national economy striving for prosperity and societal wellbeing in equal measure. Community access to allotments can play a part in this collective effort.

Allotments and their provision are the responsibility of local authorities. That is set out in the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015. However, since 2012, the Scottish Government has allocated more than £1.4 million to directly support and increase the land that is available for community growing.

Confirmation of the additional £150 million for flood risk management was provided to COSLA by the Cabinet Secretary for Finance in her letter of 4 February 2021. The indicative annual capital allocations, as set out in the letter, are provided in the attached table. The initial £10 million tranche was distributed to local authorities in the 2021-2022 financial year. Discussions are ongoing with COSLA on the arrangements for distribution of the remaining £140 million.

The decline in capercaillie numbers is of real concern, NatureScot recently published a Review of Capercaillie Conservation and Management - Report to the Scientific Advisory Committee | NatureScot

The report found, inter alia, that it is likely that “ reductions in the numbers of predators (foxes, pine martens, crows) would rapidly improve the breeding success of Capercaillie” . However the evidence is unclear as to whether reductions of fox populations alone would benefit capercaillie without management of other predator species due to the interactions between predator species.

NatureScot are working closely with the Cairngorms Capercaillie Project to support capercaillie conservation in Scotland, and have recently published an outline of the measures, beyond those which are already being undertaken, that are being considered to save capercaillie. These include:

• Carefully designed and monitored diversionary feeding of predators, currently being investigated, being expanded to provide alternative food during the breeding season.
• Additional predator control to remove crows, foxes and including pine martens. In the case of pine marten this would be non-lethal, through trap and release as part of reintroduction to other parts of the UK.
• Seasonal visitor management to create larger refuges from human disturbance in collaboration with communities.
• Extend deer fence marking and removal.

The Scottish Government takes the welfare of all farmed animals very seriously and has recently introduced measures to monitor fish welfare at slaughter. The UK Animal Welfare Committee is currently considering the welfare of farmed fish at slaughter and we will explore the need for any changes to current practice or legislation once the committee publishes its findings.

The Scottish Government, it’s partners and agencies have funded actions to support capercaillie conservation across Scotland through a range of schemes. Funding has been awarded to estates as well as eNGO’s and individuals and we expect this to continue.

Funding is awarded to projects that would benefit capercaillie conservation but are not specifically for this purpose. This could include supporting new pine wood planting in capercaillie areas, the management and improvement of existing habitat as well as it's extension through actions such as controlling deer numbers, fence marking or removal, and thinning to improve light levels.

NatureScot’s investment in Abernethy over the past 3 years has principally been support through the Peatland Action Fund that is delivering SG objectives to tackle the twin crisis of climate change and biodiversity loss. A further project supported a number of seasonal rangers, helping to ensure responsible use of the NNR. They have also provided support for RSPB staff posts for their work on Capercaillie.

The following tables below show the funding allocation from both NatureScot and the Forestry Grant Scheme to Abernethy National Nature Reserve, this funding may have been for a range of purposes, and funding may have been allocated indirectly via other partners so a complete breakdown is not available. It is important to note that the Capercaillie officer funding is mainly for the wider co-ordination of Capercaillie, and not specific to Abernethy.

NatureScot Abernethy Funding Allocation

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

As I outlined in my response to S6W-07615 on 25 April 2022, funding allocated to Abernethy is for a range of purposes and is our assessment that this has been of value for money despite the decline in capercaillie numbers.

While the status of the capercaillie population in Scotland remains vulnerable, without the investment that has been made to the likes of Abernethy it is likely that we would have lost capercaillie from Scotland.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Food Security and Supply Taskforce met for the third time on 20 April and continues its work to monitor, identify and respond to any potential disruption to the food and drink supply chain resulting from to the impact of the war in Ukraine. The Taskforce plans to publish details of its work in the near future.

I am committed to engagement of the type I think Ms Hamilton is suggesting. I, and my officials, frequently meet with land management stakeholders, including organisations representing gamekeepers, and I am due to meet again with the Scottish Gamekeepers Association shortly. We expect to continue to engage with those stakeholders on issues affecting the sector, including specific issues relating to gamekeeping now and as we move forwards with tackling the biodiversity and climate emergencies.