Chamber and committees

No, we are not saying that the order will be scrapped. We will work with the Scottish Agricultural Wages Board to try to reach that goal, where wages are below the living wage.

Was your previous question on the NFU writing to the UK Government in relation to—

I am sorry that I cannot be with you today, convener. Thank you for inviting me to give evidence to the committee. I am sure that it will not be my last appearance. I am delighted to set out the Scottish Government’s stall and our priorities for rural affairs and islands over the parliamentary session.

I feel proud and humbled to have been asked by the First Minister to lead on this important portfolio, because there are exciting times ahead. There are huge challenges but also significant opportunities. I have the honour of leading one of the Government’s biggest areas of reform and revitalisation over the next four years, while also aligning key rural sectors with wider national priorities.

I am determined that Scotland’s rural and island areas and industries will play their part in contributing to our net zero ambitions and in enhancing biodiversity. However, I also want rural and island economies and communities to benefit from those priorities, for there to be more inclusive growth, for green skills to create career opportunities and for fair work first principles to be applied. I want Scotland to realise the immense potential that rural Scotland undoubtedly has and to create sustainability for those areas in that process. Key to that is enabling and empowering communities to be in charge of their own destinies, contributing their knowledge and skills and turning ideas into action.

I want to see communities in charge of the changes that they want to see locally across rural Scotland, which is why I am pleased to announce the launch of the rural communities ideas into action fund, which will open for applications from not-for-profit community groups for funding of up to £50,000 from 13 September. Through that fund we will be looking for projects that demonstrate that they advance greater inclusion, equality and diversity in local communities. Projects will also need to show how they will support other priorities such as net zero ambitions and will need to be community led.

On what else we will be reforming and revitalising in the coming year, work is already under way to create a new system of rural support. The newly formed agriculture reform implementation oversight board—which I will co-chair with Martin Kennedy, the president of NFU Scotland—meets for the first time on Monday. By November, the board will have agreed a national test programme and we will have started to recruit farmers and crofters to take part in that. The board’s core premise is to take forward the recommendations of the farmer-led groups, as is set out in our manifesto.

We will also consult on a new agriculture bill, setting out our vision for that new rural support system while ensuring that our future policy stays broadly aligned with the European Union. We will continue to modernise tenant farming and small landholding legislation, and we will seek to double the amount of land used for organic farming by 2026. As part of the wider reform agenda, we will start work to determine how best to support new and young entrants into farming, and by the end of this session of Parliament we will have doubled annual support for women in agriculture to develop their skills.

I am determined to ensure that we maintain the highest possible welfare standards for all animals. We will work in partnership with other administrations across these islands where it is in everyone’s best interests to do so, while also meeting Scotland’s specific interests. We will review animal welfare legislation to improve animal transport legislation, and we will act to lead on improving measures, too. Work will begin to phase out cage-laying hens and farrowing crates for pigs and to review the current honey bee health strategy.

We need the right mix of professionals to care for our animals, which is why we will progress the commitment to create a new Scottish veterinary service. The provision of vets and other animal health professionals across farming, as well as in our food and drink industry, is one of the areas where Brexit has had a negative impact and has shown how vulnerable we are when it comes to having the right people, with the right skills, in the right places. That is why we are undertaking a root-and-branch review of land-based education, an independent commission on which has already been appointed.

However, the fact remains that, no matter what work we do to reform or revitalise to create a fairer and greener rural Scotland, our efforts will be hindered by the United Kingdom Government’s reckless decision to pursue a hard Brexit during the pandemic. We warned of the consequences that are now being experienced as a result of the loss of freedom of movement and free trade. Worse than that, the UK Government is intent on short changing people in Scotland yet again by failing to replace lost EU funding in full. That is the latest in a litany of broken Brexit promises. Time and again, our interests have been ignored.

However, throughout all that, rural industries and the people who work in them have shown their resilience, innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship. Nowhere is that more evident than in our vibrant food and drink sector. As we celebrate Scotland’s food and drink fortnight, we will begin a series of actions to provide the sector with more support to help it to grow sustainably: we will introduce a new good food nation bill and reinstate the ministerial working group on food, we are consulting on a draft local food strategy, and we are working closely with the industry and stakeholders in delivering the food and drink sector recovery plan.

On seafood, we will set out our new blue economy vision by the end of the year, which will recognise the interconnections between social, economic and environmental incomes that exist in managing our marine assets. We will publish a new strategy for seafood next year and will continue to support an aquaculture industry that is sustainable, diverse, competitive and economically viable.

The independent review of fish farming regulation is already under way, and we will act on its recommendations by the end of the year. In 2022, we will lead on developing a new vision for aquaculture. We will take forward the future fisheries management strategy, publish a future catching policy and roll out remote electronic monitoring to key parts of the fishing fleet.

I am particularly pleased to have been appointed the cabinet secretary for Scotland’s islands. We have a range of ambitious and novel policies that we want to pursue, taking on board what island authorities and communities tell us that they need to thrive and flourish. We will introduce a new £5 million islands bond fund that will provide up to £50,000 each for up to 100 households by 2026, thereby supporting a sustainable demographic future.

In addition, over the next five years, we will invest £30 million of infrastructure investment plan capital funding to ensure delivery of the national islands plan by supporting a range of areas, including tourism, infrastructure, innovation, energy transition and skills. That will be informed by our learning from how island communities have responded and adapted to Covid-19. We will also deliver at least three carbon neutral islands by 2040, which will create jobs and protect our island environments from climate change, as well as contributing to our 2045 net zero commitment.

Our commitments to reform and revitalise rural affairs and island priorities are bold and ambitious, so it is clear that I will be busy over the coming session. However, in the spirit of the new co-operation agreement with the Scottish Greens, I want to extend an offer to work with the committee to take forward our programme for government and manifesto commitments. Many members of the committee live in rural areas or have islands in their constituencies and will know many of the issues that we face as well as, if not better than, me. It does not make sense to ignore that knowledge and experience. I am sure, too, that we all share a common aim and purpose, which, ultimately, is to make life in Scotland better for us all. I would welcome the opportunity to work with the committee over the course of the parliamentary session to help to achieve that for Scotland’s rural and island communities.

I look forward to members’ questions and our discussion this morning.

As far as I am aware, there has not been a response to that, and I have not had any communications from the UK Government in relation to it. We have, of course, continued to pursue that issue with the UK Government because, as the committee will be aware, addressing that is absolutely critical for our food production. The issue is right across the supply chain. I know that the committee took evidence on it last week, and it was raised countless times in our debate on food and drink last week.

There have been asks of the UK Government in relation to the shortage occupation list. Mr Fairlie has mentioned some of the requests. We support them, of course, but, unfortunately, the levers to try to influence any of that are not within our control.

On the back of the letters that were issued last week by industry and the NFUS, I have also written to the UK Government to request a call with the Home Secretary in order to discuss the critical issues that we, in Scotland, are facing. I hope that we will be listened to, but, as I outlined in last week’s debate, we have made 19 different approaches to the UK Government to discuss migration and, so far, every one of them has been ignored.

I have no particular plans that I can share at the moment. We are aware of the discussions that are happening in the EU on the issue, and we are closely monitoring them. I will, of course, be happy to update the committee on developments.

There will be a lot of scope to refine the policy as it develops. The consultation is open. We have committed to developing £5 million-worth of islands bonds. The intention is to offer 100 bonds of £50,000 each to young people and families. The bonds could encourage people to move to islands that have fragile populations or suffer from depopulation, or it could be used to help to keep people on our islands.

We are in the early stages of that and are keen to hear what people think. I have already been inundated with emails. I hope that there will be a high rate of response to the consultation. I encourage everyone to take part and to make their views clear. We will also undertake an island communities impact assessment as part of that work. We want to do that work early so that it can inform how the policy develops. We are open to ideas. The consultation is important in shaping the policy.

The bonds are just one measure. We do not expect them to resolve the depopulation that some islands are experiencing, but they are one tool to tackle some of the issues.

You are absolutely right that that is a key piece of work that we have taken forward on agriculture.

We are also working closely with the Scottish fishing industry, through the Scottish fishing industry safety group, on improving safety for all fishers. That group recently received £140,000 through the marine fund Scotland to deliver free safety training for fishing vessel crews.

As well as looking at safety, we are carrying out specific research into the barriers that are faced by new entrants and by specific equalities groups, including women, to entering and progressing through the fishing industry. We will be looking to take specific action on that through the future management strategy, in order to ensure that we have the right support in place. In addition, through the marine fund, new entrants are able to apply for funding towards the purchase of a second-hand fishing vessel. In relation to new entrants and women—as you said, as we have done for women in agriculture—we realise that there is more scope for diversity in fishing, so we want to ensure that we make the industry as open as possible.

In relation to committee scrutiny, again, as we touched on earlier, it is a matter for the Parliamentary Bureau to discuss and determine which committee would be best placed to consider which pieces of legislation.

When it comes to wildlife and some of the issues that you mentioned—the grouse moor management review and the response to the deer working group—those are the responsibilities of the lead minister, the Minister for Environment and Land Reform, Màiri McAllan.

I am sorry, but do you mean wider species licensing in general?

We have made a PFG commitment in relation to tenant farmers, and that work will be undertaken through land reform legislation, so the committee will be closely involved in it. We also want to ensure that tenant farmers can play as full a role as possible when we are looking to undertake measures for climate mitigation and emission reductions. A number of schemes are being worked on to ensure that that can happen.

As you say, the EU’s target of 25 per cent is very ambitious. About 1.7 per cent of our land is currently being farmed organically. Our target is achievable—there is no point in setting targets that are so far out of reach that we do not have a chance of meeting them. We must be pragmatic, but we must also be ambitious about what we can do.

It is concerning that, over recent times, the amount of land that has been farmed organically has reduced when we want it to increase. In the co-operation agreement, we say that we want the amount of land that is farmed organically to at least double by the end of this parliamentary session. If we are able to increase the amount further, I hope that we will do that.

We will also deliver on an action plan for organic farming. We will build on the work that was done through the previous plan, which was in place until 2020. We will also work together with the organic sector on the different actions that we can take to increase the amount of land that is being farmed organically and on what we can do with regard to organic produce.

Critical to that is the food for life scheme, which is about getting more organic produce to local authorities and served in our schools. We very much support that initiative and are keen for it to continue. Just over half of local authorities in Scotland are now signed up to the scheme. As we set out in our manifesto, it is critical that we harness our wider public procurement and spending powers and that we embed the food for life scheme and expand it across the wider public sector. That will all help to develop our work on organics.