Seòmar agus comataidhean

Absolutely. I stress that work on that is going on all the time. The islands team engages with other portfolios across Government all the time, on different aspects of the work.

We are still in line with the commitment and we still intend to publish the action plan this year.

As I said, we have been looking at the on-going commitments that we already have, and we have resourced those through the islands programme resource funding, community settlement officers and various other projects and pilots. I am not going to pre-empt what will come out of that, but we will also work jointly with the population team.

There have been various calls from different organisations on what should be more heavily weighted, but the fact is that we have committed to a process of co-development with our farmers and crofters. I will not pre-empt the discussions that we will have on that, but we do not have any certainty on our future budgets in that regard.

You will, no doubt, be aware of the other commitments on maintaining direct payments. We know how important it is to continue that support for our farmers and for food production, which we have previously stated. We have not yet come to a decision on an overall budget split, because it is an important part of the co-development process.

You can see from the published budget how our spending for agricultural funding is used. George Burgess may have information about the specific £60 million.

That is the point that George Burgess is making. The way in which that money is returned to the portfolio would be subject to my discussions with the Deputy First Minister. We are yet to discuss that. The £33 million that you refer to came up in a previous discussion. We are still to agree on how that will be returned to the portfolio. Because ring-fenced funding is ring fenced, it must be returned to the portfolio.

Yes.

We know that the agri-environment climate scheme largely delivers on its objectives. It has been a really important scheme for our farmers. I emphasise that that is where we are currently working. The national test programme is in place to offer an incentive for businesses, if they are not doing so already, to look at their performance in relation to carbon audits and soil testing. We have also provided funding this year for animal health and welfare plans, and we want to expand that in the future. It is important that individual businesses get their own baseline information to see how they can improve from that point.

Funding does not come only from that scheme. You will be aware, as I am when I visit farms and crofts across the country, of the different actions that are being undertaken and the work that is already under way to reduce emissions and enhance nature. The coming agriculture bill will set out the overall powers that are needed to establish a framework for future payments, and there is more detail to come about that.

Those are huge concerns going forward, because we have no certainty on what the funding will be beyond 2025. As much as we can set out our thinking about what a future framework might look to deliver, we do not have clarity about the funding for various schemes in the future. We are still trying to engage with the UK Government in that conversation in order to get clarity and certainty but, unfortunately, those discussions have not taken place.

No, because it is not possible to say that. Without having a budget and without knowing what will happen over the course of the next year, we do not know what those potential savings might be.

Craig, do you want to come in?