Chamber and committees

In line with our manifesto commitment, work is already underway to examine the potential to allow more starter opportunities for farmers and crofters on publicly owned land.

The Scottish Government is currently working on a national development plan for crofting and will publish it in due course.

A number of options are currently being explored in relation to providing additional support for croft housing beyond the current croft housing grant scheme.

Currently there is a wide range of support and schemes available to new entrants to farming and crofting. As shown below:

Scottish Rural Development Programme (SRDP) Support: The SRDP 2014 to 2020 made available £8 million of support to help new entrants start-up. £6 million to young farmers / crofters (no more than 40 years old as governed by European Commission regulation) and £2 million aimed at new entrants of smaller units and where no age restriction applies.

The schemes were both launched on 1 January 2015 and the first round of applications were recently assessed.

Young Farmer (including crofters) Start-Up Grant – Around 90 successful applicants – each will receive the sterling equivalent of 70,000 (claimed in two instalments) subject to satisfactory achievement of milestones laid out in their business plan. Total cost just over £5 million.

New Entrant Start-Up Grant – 14 successful applicants – each will receive the sterling equivalent of 15,000 (claimed in two instalments) subject to satisfactory achievement of milestones laid out in their business plan. Total cost approximately £168,000.

Applications to the second window closed on 30 April 2016 and these will be assessed in the coming months. Separate capital support of up to £25,000 to assist business development projects is available to all new entrants who started their business in the five years preceding their application.

Starter Units: Forest Commission Scotland (FCS) has nine tenanted starter farmers. All are on a 10 year lease. One further site is being progressed in Aberdeenshire. In addition to the FCS programme, in mid-2014, tenants took entry of Scottish Government’s starter farm on land at Balrobert near Inverness.

Separately, a new group has been examining ways of increasing the number of starter opportunities on publicly owned land and aims to around report imminently.

Advice and Mentoring: In September 2016, a new Farm Advisory Service (under the SRDP) will include dedicated provision for new entrants, including a mentoring service.

Crofters have long been concerned at overly complicated and outdated legislation. The Scottish Government intends to modernise crofting law and make it more transparent, understandable and workable in practice, and will do so in the lifetime of this Parliament.

The decision in relation to the timing of a future Crofting Bill will be made in due course, taking into account discussions with stakeholders which are already underway and the other legislative priorities of the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government takes the issue of bullying, harassment and discrimination in the workplace very seriously. However, the Scottish Government is not currently considering the appointment of a Scottish anti-bullying “tsar”.

The Scottish Government takes the issue of bullying, harassment and discrimination in the workplace very seriously. That is one of the reasons that the Independent Fair Work Convention was set up in April 2015 bringing together trade unions, the private sector and the wider public sector. Part of the convention's remit is to encourage progressive workforce policies which encourage innovation, higher productivity and better workforce engagement.

Scottish Government is not considering legislation on workplace bullying at this time. However there are a number of existing criminal offences which criminalise behaviour that can amount to bullying. The common law of assault and the statutory offence of threatening and abusive behaviour criminalise conduct associated with behaviour that can also amount to bullying.

This government wants every child and young person in Scotland to grow up free from bullying and to develop respectful, responsible and confident relationships. Bullying of any kind is unacceptable and must be addressed quickly, whenever it arises.

Recording and monitoring bullying incidents at a local level enables establishments to identify where improvements can be made to support the wellbeing of all children and young people. This allows organisations to ensure that an appropriate response and follow up has been actioned. This information helps organisations monitor the effectiveness of their policies and practice, review and improve where appropriate and also help identify professional learning opportunities.

We have established and wholly fund respectme, a national anti-bullying service, to build confidence and capacity to address bullying effectively, aligned to the National Approach to Anti-bullying for Scotland's Children and Young People. Respectme provide direct support to local authorities, schools, youth groups and all those working with children and young people.

The refreshed National Approach to Anti-Bullying for Scotland's Children and Young People, which is due to be published later 2016, makes clear of the role of all adults and children and young people in preventing and dealing with bullying, as well as what they can expect from others.

The self-evaluation tool ‘How Good is Our School 4’ was launched in September 2015 and will come into force for all schools in August 2016. This includes a safeguarding quality indicator and a specific quality indicator on ensuring wellbeing, equality and inclusion. This will support schools to effectively evaluate their own practice and support self-improvement.

None of the £65.5 million budget available for the less favoured area support scheme (LFASS) 2015 or 2016 has been spent. However, in April 2016, we made available £55 million of national funding to those who had claimed LFASS between March and June 2015, and had been paid under the 2014 scheme.

We aim to pay European commission funded LFASS claims made under the 2015 scheme, later in summer 2016. This will include automatic recovery of the national funds paid in April 2016, and issuing balance payments, where due. All eligible claims will be settled in accordance with the published rates, and there is no requirement to reduce any payments to remain within budget.

LFASS 2016 claims were part of the 2016 single application form which closed to applications last month. We aim to process and pay eligible claims in spring 2017.

Preventing homelessness across Scotland is a priority for the Scottish Government and we don’t want anyone to be homeless. We have unrivalled rights for homeless people and these apply in rural areas as well as across Scotland. We are radically increasing the supply of affordable housing, and for rural areas we have announced a £25 million rural housing fund to operate over the next three years. It will increase supply of long term affordable housing in rural areas by assisting the building of new homes and refurbishment of existing buildings. We are continuing to develop the housing options approach to preventing homelessness, working with our partners in councils to develop a comprehensive interactive training toolkit for those who advise people on how to avoid homelessness.