Chamber and committees

That is very helpful—thank you. Would anyone else like to comment?

Thank you, panel. This has been very informative. Professor Denham, I read with great interest your paper on setting up an English Parliament, because I always reflect back to the West Lothian question, and I appreciate that you were in government when Scotland achieved its devolution. I am interested in your thoughts, based on your paper, of the improvements that an English Parliament could mean for the currently devolved nations.

Would anyone else on the panel like to comment on that?

You have pre-empted my next question.

My apologies.

Are there any gaps in data collection? Is data collection consistent across Scotland, or are there specific areas where you need additional information? If so, how can that be achieved?

Thank you. That was really helpful. I have to say, though, that farmers are being asked to fill in lots of different reports, whether they be for carbon audits, land use or whatever, and now there is this. Is there any way of pulling the different systems together?

Do you have any preliminary findings from the pilots on outcome-based approaches? Are they helping to influence the payment model? What connections do you have with other projects that are going on, such as Quality Meat Scotland’s monitor farm programme and the work that the Nature Friendly Farming Network is doing on peer-to-peer support and on how things could and should change?

Have you been linking into the monitor farms and the work of the Nature Friendly Farming Network?

I do not have a supplementary, but I was agreeing, because I remember being at a meeting where a farmer spoke passionately about that. He is based on Lismore and, in the 1970s, he had been thinking about how to increase crops, specifically strawberries. He said that, from the smell when he put the chemicals on the field, he should have realised that he was killing things.

I was just nodding in agreement, convener. I am not entirely sure why you have come to me. I apologise for going off on a tangent.

I would be interested in hearing about NatureScot’s inputs to the development of the tiered route map, specifically those that might impact on the west coast of Scotland, where my constituency is. Have you been involved in discussions on less favoured area support scheme payments?

Secondly—and this is at a slight tangent—I would also like to ask about the geese payments that NatureScot manages.