Chamber and committees

The funding for Road Improvements referred to in the budget document covers strategic road safety and Traffic Scotland (including maintenance of Intelligent Transport Systems infrastructure) and is expected to be maintained at the current annual level of £16 million in the next financial year subject to Parliamentary approval. However we also anticipate funding on-going and committed further improvements including completion of the Forth Replacement Crossing, the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route and the M8/73/74 motorway improvements as well as progressing dualling of the A9 and A96, the A737 Dalry Bypass, Haudagain roundabout in Aberdeen and the A90 Laurencekirk junction, which in total are currently projected to be in the order of £470 million in 2017-18.

This is in addition to the funding we plan to allocate for routine and winter maintenance of £85 million, Network Strengthening of £42 million and structural repairs of £28 million for 2017-18.

Rating valuation is for the Assessors, who will publish provisional 2017 revaluations online at www.saa.gov.uk in due course, ahead of posting final valuation notices to properties from March 2017. The Scottish Government will promote awareness via the Scottish Ratepayers Forum and other channels.

The Scottish Government does not have formal responsibility for electricity networks which is reserved to the UK Government and overseen by the independent regulator Ofgem.

However, Scottish Ministers and officials meet regularly with the Scottish transmission network operators Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission and Scottish Power Transmission, the GB system operator National Grid, and Ofgem to review current and future plans for network upgrades.

In addition the Scottish Government works closely with the electricity industry, UK Government and local emergency responders to ensure that: all available resources are effectively deployed in response to electricity failures; lessons are learned from any incidents which occur; and where proportionate, mitigation put in place to avoid further impacts or improve response.

The principal agricultural environmental schemes in Scotland are the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) and the Environmental Co-operation Action Fund (ECAF) under the Scottish Rural Development Programme (SRDP), supported through ‘Pillar 2’ of the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

We are currently seeking EU approval to introduce changes to the detailed prescriptions for management options under the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme which will improve the accuracy of payment rate calculations and/or improve the clarity or effectiveness of management requirements. We also intend to introduce minor changes to improve the accuracy of targeting maps for certain management options. We intend to implement these changes in time for the 2017 application round. During 2017, we intend to review the scoring criteria against which applications are assessed, to ensure these are as effective as possible in identifying good quality applications.

The Environmental Co-operation Action Fund was launched in 2015. We are currently reviewing the design of the Environmental Co-operation Action Fund and any improvements will be implemented in time for the 2017 Environmental Co-operation Action Fund application round.

‘Pillar 1’ Greening was introduced in 2015. The basic framework for Greening is set out in the EU Regulation, but certain detailed rules were subject to national discretion. The Scottish Government has not announced any plans to review the national decisions regarding the implementation of Greening in Scotland, although we are engaging with stakeholders to discuss their views on the effectiveness of Greening.

Our vision for the future is an agriculture industry in Scotland that is innovative, profitable, sustainable and supporting economic growth. We will work closely with industry to develop the next steps to help realise that vision, and this will help inform our deliberations on what future support measures, for the period after the UK leaves the EU, may be appropriate for the industry. The Scottish Government will negotiate with the UK Government to ensure that future support for agriculture and rural development is allocated on a fair and equitable basis across the UK.

The Scottish Government announced the introduction of compulsory soil testing in June 2015 and we have been working on the detail with a range of scientific, environmental and industry stakeholders. We are considering options for compulsory soil testing to be part of the package of measures to reduce emissions from agriculture in the Climate Change Plan, the third report on policies and proposals, which will be published in draft in January next year.

The Knowledge Transfer Innovation Fund (KTIF), is also taking forward a number of projects, for example, the Soil Association Scotland's 'Future Farming Scotland' and 'Farming with Nature' initiatives (as well as a future project 'Farming for the Future'), and Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society's (SAOS) Precision Farming project which enable co-ops to provide farmers with open and transparent data and analytical services, with the benefit of collective investment and risk sharing.

The Farm Advisory Service (FAS) will be taking forward and is responsible for the delivery of the Soil Nutrient Network in relation to soil management.

Through the recently relaunched Scotland's Soils Website (http://soils.environment.gov.scot/) soils data is made publicly available, supporting informed decisions about the management of Scotland's soils and the benefits they provide.

The Scottish Government does not provide direct support to farmers to help with their fallen stock. Unfortunately dealing with fallen stock is a consequence of keeping livestock, and the disposal costs are therefore one part of the production costs for livestock businesses.

However, in the past, Scottish Government have taken a number of measures to assist farmers with mitigating the costs of collection and disposal and we continue to work with them to keep the situation under review.

The Scottish Government is taking a wide range of actions to ensure children and as importantly their families have the knowledge and skills necessary for healthy living across the life course. This begins with the Government’s Improving Maternal and Infant Nutrition: A framework for Action and such advice continues for young families with programmes such as Eat Better Feel Better our social marketing campaign. For Schools Health and Wellbeing is one of the eight curricular areas in the Curriculum for Excellence. In addition to PE children and young people should experience daily opportunities for sport and physical activity. This is supported by the Active Schools programme which provides opportunities for children and young people to participate in sport and physical activity before, during and after school which is further supported through the Government’ support of Community Sport Hubs to date 155 are in place, 50% based in schools with 45 more to come by 2020.

For this outcome to be effective the Government is tackling the obesogenic environment through such work as Supporting Healthy Choices Framework to ensure all are able to be more active, eat less and eat better.