Seòmar agus comataidhean

You say that there is a definition in the route map, but it will be the ordinary meaning that is relevant to the bill, so what is the ordinary meaning of regenerative?

I think we need to start having that long wished-for joined-up approach.

I have a question on the same area. The bill says that ministers have to have regard to developments in law and policy in the European Union. Will that facilitate alignment with the EU CAP? Specifically, will the tier 1 minimum production standards to protect the environment, animal welfare and fair work, as referred to in the policy memorandum, align with EU conditions on base-level support?

In your response to Rhoda Grant, you mentioned a commitment to a “review of the regions”. I imagine that you were referring to the payment regions. Is that what you were referring to? That is an important issue, which was raised on our recent visit to the Scotland’s Rural College farms at Crianlarich, where it was pointed out that it is possible to have two identical land holdings right next to each other, but one can receive higher payments than the other if it had a higher headage when the payment regions were established. Will you be sorting out those kinds of discrepancies in the review?

I am glad that it is being considered somewhere.

So it is about being able to react in the moment to something that occurs.

I note that matters to be considered in the plan include

“the proposals and policies contained in the climate change plan which relate to agriculture, forestry and rural land-use”.

What about transport? Given that we are talking about rural communities, do we need to be thinking about the transport aspect, too?

Thank you.

Could you imagine a situation in which somebody applied to a scheme because they wanted to install animal production infrastructure that was polluting, but their land was close to a river and there were run-off problems? One purpose of the bill is to encourage nature restoration, climate mitigation and so on through regenerative agricultural practices. Could you envisage a scenario in which that would not be in the public interest and support payment was refused?

My question is about continuing professional development—we have skipped forward. I would be interested in understanding how the Scottish Government anticipates using the powers relating to CPD. With the move to regenerative agriculture, nature restoration and climate mitigation and adaptation, farmers and crofters will need training, knowledge exchange and other support in order to meet the higher standards in tiers 2, 3 and 4. I would be interested to hear what the thinking is—this is maybe beyond the scope of the bill—on whether sufficient funds are allocated to CPD to ensure the transition to the new framework and whether it is a just transition.

Will meeting fair work standards, including paying the agricultural living wage, be a possible condition for support under the new scheme?