Chamber and committees

Will the member take an intervention?

I am sorry—I do not think that the Conservatives can, on the one hand, say that the legislative process is slow and, on the other, say that there is too much legislation. I think that that is a difficult point for the member to make, but well done to him for trying nonetheless.

Around a quarter of Scotland’s total greenhouse gas emissions come from our agriculture sector. However, at the same time, it is also one of the sectors that is most affected by climate change. Flooding, drought, extreme weather and increased pest and disease risks are all conditions that crofters and farmers face and will have to adapt to in the coming years and decades. As usual, I will focus first on some of the issues of that kind and others that face my island community specifically, as well as agriculture in less favoured areas more generally. In those areas, agriculture is far from intensive, and the most immediate threat, which others have alluded to, is that agricultural activity falls below a certain level, which makes whole agricultural communities and local economies difficult to sustain.

There may well be a global re-examination of the levels of meat consumption. However, when we look at the 85 per cent of Scotland’s land mass that is classified as a less favoured area, we need to recognise that much of that land has very limited capacity, in economic terms, to be used for anything other than grazing livestock. Indeed, livestock help to create biodiversity and, particularly on the west coast, can be used as part of conservation efforts.

That is not to say that we should not encourage diversification, but we need to accept facts—not least the fact that grazed landscapes, at least in the context of non-intensive forms of agriculture, are necessary habitats for some of our rarest bird species.

Crofting and upland farming hold out models for such non-intensive activity and yet, as any hill farmer or crofter will point out, they are not where the balance of agricultural payments currently lies. If anything, the crofting landscape faces underutilisation rather than overexploitation. That is partly because half of crofters gain as little as £1,400 a year in agricultural subsidies under the present support regime. I hope that the Government will address that.

My point is that many forms of livestock agriculture can demonstrate that they are working with the environment but do not presently get rewarded for that.

Some of the questions that have been asked in the crofting counties are difficult to separate from the need for crofting law reform. To take but one example of that, the point is regularly put to me that the right of veto for a single shareholder in a common grazings can sometimes make it difficult for a community to invest in agri-environmental schemes or any other collective form of activity.

Am I running out of time, Presiding Officer?

I want to pick up briefly on a point that was made. In doing so, I realise that a lot was going on today. In her evidence, the cabinet secretary mentioned that the UK Government has an impact on some of the issues that we are talking about with regard to wider islands policy. Have we had any update on when a UK minister might come to the committee to talk about anything at any point?

Can you say a bit more about how island communities play a role in assessing the impact of what the islands plan is achieving? By that, I am referring not just to the important quantitative data that you have just talked about, but to qualitative opinion. How do you measure that?

You are liaising with local authorities, but are you also liaising with individual island communities? You know what I am going to say. For people in certain islands—I will not name the islands—the local authority is not only distant but does not have much sympathy with them. How do you ensure that you are liaising with specific islands and not just with local authorities that are distant beasts?

I do not say any of that to take away from the importance of the local authorities, but you know what I am referring to. Thank you.

I was just going to say that, if it had not been inappropriate for Karen Adam to ask it, I would have asked the same question. That was the point that I was making.

I think that we are running out of time, to be honest.

Well, I tell a lie—I will ask a question, if we have time. It is about not just the annual report but, more generally, the ability—as the cabinet secretary has touched on—to influence other Government directorates when it comes to islands policy.

Cabinet secretary, you have indicated that your directorate cannot change everything in islands yourselves, and you have mentioned that the island communities impact assessments might be able to change the culture in Government. What progress has been made on changing the culture more broadly across Government?

Clearly, the ICIAs have made a big impact—no pun intended—and they have raised expectations in a way about the decisions that would be subject to that assessment. A question that I am sometimes asked is about which organisations, agencies or bodies are required to consider going down that route. Will you say a bit about which are and which are not? We are sometimes asked that question locally.