Chamber and committees

How much of that £10.8 million was spent on upgrading your IT system?

Is that new capital funding?

Thank you.

Does that come under adjustments? Where will it sit, ultimately? As a layman looking at this Scottish budget, I cannot see where, if you have already allocated it, you will reallocate it and where it will sit. Can you give me an indication of where you think it will sit?

Why? You are going to put it in both lines, because, if you add £15 million to the £13.8 million capital funding under level 3 of the Scottish budget and you take it off the AECS funding of £29.6 million, does that not look to a layman as though you are shifting funding but are not necessarily spending it on AECS?

We know that the Scottish Government, through the Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Bill, is planning to introduce enhanced conditionality in respect of supporting biodiversity gain and delivering a low-carbon approach to farming. However, the agriculture reform budget has been cut significantly. According to the information that this committee has, that is because the uptake in previous years has been lower than expected, as you mentioned. Why cut the budget if you are trying to get those farmers who are not currently soil testing or undertaking carbon audits to do so? Why not support those people to get up to speed so that they can be ready for the next demands that you will be placing on them in terms of enhanced conditionality? Why cut that budget? Why do you not promote those measures and thereby improve uptake?

I disagree, because the funding has been reduced by 40 per cent.

The 2021-22 budget allocated £51.3 million for the national test programme. How much of that was not spent, and how has that been reallocated?

Yes, it is over three years. I do not know where the £20 million figure comes from. Actually, that was for 2023-24. However, the figure is down to £12 million now.

The development support budget was cut entirely. What was the budget for, and what would be the impact of that cut?

Where is that return to the portfolio reflected in the Scottish budget lines that I am looking at right now?

In a nutshell, the £26.9 million allocated in 2024-25 to the agri-environment measures will remain the same but, in effect, one half will be capital and one half will be resource.