Chamber and committees

I thank the witnesses for their evidence to the committee this morning and for staying a little longer than was anticipated. That concludes the public part of our meeting.

I will bring in Morgan Vaughan and then take a supplementary from—

I will bring in Morgan Vaughan at this point and then take a supplementary from Jim Fairlie.

Two members of the committee still want to ask questions. If the witnesses would bear with us and stay for a bit longer, that would be appreciated.

I think that Ian Boyd-Livingston does, and then we will have to move on to Karen Adam.

Does anybody else want to respond to that?

We move to questions from Rachael Hamilton.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the 11th meeting of the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee in 2023. Before we begin, I remind members who are using electronic devices to switch them to silent.

We have received apologies from Finlay Carson and Mercedes Villalba.

Members will note that Jenni Minto has left the committee and has been appointed as Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health. I thank her for her contributions to the committee over the past two years and wish her all the best in her new role.

Christine Grahame will join the committee, but, due to a previous constituency engagement, she is not able to be here this morning and has given her apologies for the meeting, too.

Item 1 on the agenda and our main item of business is pre-legislative scrutiny of Scotland’s future agricultural policy, focusing on ecological resilience.

We are joined in person by Ian Boyd-Livingston, deputy director, soils and sustainability for Stockfree Farming. Joining us remotely are Professor Tim Benton, director of the environment and society programme at Chatham House; David Harley, chief officer for circular economy at the Scottish Environment Protection Agency; Professor Pete Smith, chair in plant and soil science at the University of Aberdeen; and Morgan Vaughan, farm manager at RSPB Scotland.

I welcome all our witnesses. Those who are joining us remotely should type R in the chat box if they would like to request to speak at any point.

We have 90 minutes for questions and discussion. I ask each panellist to give a short assessment of the current resilience of Scotland’s environment and farming systems, drawing on their subject expertise.

And 2032 is not far away.

I think that Pete Smith wants to come in. Can you hear us, Pete?