Chamber and committees

We have not yet established any criteria for a new fund, but there would have to be alignment with the strategies and vision that we have set out, which is that we want what we do to be to the benefit of our coastal communities and our fishing industry in Scotland.

It is not possible for me to set that out at the moment, because what we would look to fund is dependent on the committee approving the regulations today. Should that happen, we have a number of pieces of work under way that will help to inform what a future fund might look like, and we will look to develop that as soon as we can.

I will ask Caroline Cowan to outline the specific areas that are covered by the UK seafood fund, but there are a number of activities that we fund through the marine fund Scotland that are now also being covered by the £100 million.

I will look to establish a fund in accordance with our priorities. As I said, the pieces of work that are currently under way will help to shape the criteria for that fund, but it is not our job to simply plug the gaps in the funds of others. We must spend according to our own priorities. That is what we will seek to do with the creation of any new fund.

It would mean that we would be restricted in what we could fund. We could still launch another round of the marine fund Scotland, but we would be able to fund only activity that falls within the existing scope of that. We would not be able to fund a wider range of activity.

Yes.

On Jenny Minto’s point about home working, I refer to the points that I made about the digital fibre network being a national development, and the work that has been done on transport. NPF4 is about enabling those developments to take place, all of which add to what the minister has set out.

I can come in on the first point. Is it just about how we manage what can be seen as the impacts of—

Okay. I reiterate that we are not trying to bypass any planning processes that are in place, which is a point that I made earlier. The islands can be at the forefront of cutting-edge technology for renewables, but we have to adhere to the legislation and regulations when we consider any developments, and none of the processes will be bypassed.

Concerns about protected areas have been mentioned. We have commissioned independent research to look at the impact of the draft NPF4 on current designated areas and proposed designated sites.

That is an important point and I am glad that you have raised it. From the early engagement that took place in preparation of the draft, that emphasis on food and that support for food and drink and the ability to encourage community growing is something that came out strongly. That is reflected in some of the policies that have been set out throughout the draft, as well. For example, policy 14 talks about supporting space or facilities for local community food growing and allotments. There are also a number of other policy areas where we are encouraging that development. For example, policy 31 talks about supporting farm and croft diversification and there is specific mention of enabling that to encourage farm shops to open up.

NPF4 enables that positive development and encourages the ambitions of the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Bill. I know that the committee has been taking evidence on that. Everything that is in the draft NPF4 chimes with what we are looking at through the local food strategy. We had the consultation on that, which closed in December last year, and we are currently analysing the results of that. Planning and food is critically important, and we do all we can to encourage and enable the vision and ambition that we have set out through the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Bill.

Earlier this week, I took part in a visit to the James Hutton Institute and spoke to people from Liberty Produce and Intelligent Growth Solutions about vertical farming. It is interesting to see how that has also developed and how people now look to have vertical farms as part of housing developments. There is so much opportunity there and it is important that NPF4 enables that type of development to take place so that we can become that good food nation.