Chamber and committees

The fox control bill will be led by the Minister for Environment, Biodiversity and Land Reform, Màiri McAllan. The good food nation bill was in the programme for government and we will introduce that shortly.

Do you mean in relation to the committee consideration of the bill?

On the new agriculture bill and what we hope to achieve with it, ultimately we support active farming and will support the continuation of direct payments. It is critical that we continue to support food production. We have committed in our manifesto to shifting half of all funding for farming and crofting to conditional support by 2025. Farmers and crofters will be rewarded for their role in delivering wider biodiversity and environmental benefits.

The farmer-led groups considered conditionality and what that might look like for each of the different sectors, and what is clear from that work—although there were different suggestions about what it would look like—is that conditionality will mean reducing greenhouse gas emissions to the lowest possible level for every business and restoring and protecting biodiversity for our farmed landscapes. Those two objectives go hand in hand.

A critical element of developing our proposals for the bill is making sure that they are co-developed and co-produced. We want to make sure that we bring farmers and industry along with us throughout the process, which is why we established the agricultural reform implementation and oversight board, so that we can test proposals and ensure that we are working hand in hand when developing new policy. We hope that, by our doing that, new policy will be successful.

Absolutely. As I have said, we have to be very careful and keep a close eye on how things develop in relation to the internal market act and what is being proposed in relation to subsidy control. We continue to try to engage with the UK Government on those issues to ensure that our interests are represented and that we have the ability to create our own policy, but that can be very difficult when we are not provided with all the information that we need.

I am happy to do so.

As you mentioned, we have a legal duty under the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018 to take islands issues into account when developing or reviewing policies, strategies and services through island communities impact assessments. That is hugely important when we are looking to develop policy, and the assessments have been effective in identifying issues.

We continue to engage with communities and stakeholders, as part of the island communities impact assessments process, on a wide range of policies and services that are under development, including transport, health and various aspects of food and drink.

We also seek feedback throughout the process. If there is anything that we can do to update the guidance and toolkit, we will very much look to do that.

I am sure that the member is aware that the HIAL issue falls within the remit of the Minister for Transport, Graeme Dey, so I suggest that the committee contact him on any issues that you want to follow up. He will be happy to provide you with further information.

I know that the transport minister has been undertaking engagement in and around the issue. I would be happy to ask him to get in touch with the committee and to outline the work that is taking place, if you would find that helpful.

We know that a lot of work has already been undertaken. Unfortunately, we were unable to progress it in the previous session of Parliament. Although it is not in this year’s programme for government, we have made a commitment to modernise crofting law. We will look at all the work that has been done on it so far.

The committee will be aware that crofting legislation is complex. Future work on it will not be straightforward. The work that has been undertaken has highlighted difficulties in reaching consensus on key issues, some of which might seem to be simple. Building consensus on those issues will be key in driving the work forward. I assure the committee that the work that was previously undertaken by the crofting law group and the Law Society of Scotland will stand us in good stead when we commence work on crofting law reform. We are still looking for time for that in the legislative programme. Decisions about that will be taken by the Cabinet as it sets out the future legislative programme. I reiterate our commitment to modernising crofting law. We will take that forward.

I would be happy to come back to the member and the committee with more information on what stage that work has reached. Obviously, a lot of work is on-going across Government that is not necessarily detailed point by point in the programme for government.

There is space for all these things, and we certainly do not intend to pit one sector against another.

On support for organics, conversion and certification costs are met through our agri-environment scheme. Indeed, since 2015, we have spent between £19 million and £20 million, I think, on organic conversion. I know that there are specific costs related to that, and we need to do what we can to support those who are thinking of converting to organics. If we are looking to expand the amount of land that we farm organically, support will be critical. That said, all agricultural support will be considered by the implementation oversight board that we have established, and I am sure that there will be discussions about this and further proposals developed.