Chamber and committees

Yes, I can. I hope that you can hear me okay, convener.

We had £26.6 million available in last year’s budget.

I echo all the points that you have made about the importance of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. The RBGE covers four sites across Scotland, and undertakes vital work in respect of its collections and research capability, as well as running the sites and holding events for visitors.

Committee members will be aware that there has been a slight reduction in the published budget of £1.8 million, which is a 5 per cent reduction to the capital element of the budget. I want to highlight that the reduction in the capital element of the budget relates to the phasing of the biomes project and how that is working at the moment—it is not a cut to the project. That is why the spend is set out as it is. Overall, there is a £58 million contribution to the Edinburgh biomes project, of which £50 million comes from the low carbon fund, with a further £8 million coming from the Scottish Government. It is a hugely important project, which is why the on-going commitment to its funding is so important and will be vital for the botanic garden.

Absolutely, and I emphasise that point as well. I met the board just before Christmas to get an update on some of the key pieces of work that the RBGE is doing at the moment. I re-emphasise that commitment from the Scottish Government: we are still committed to the biomes project and the reduction in the funding is only because of the phasing of the project—the overall commitment still stands.

Work on that is happening just now. Last year, I announced some changes to the forestry grant scheme because, obviously, we want more riparian planting and more agroforestry. The grants and the rates of grant that we have made available for smaller schemes are hugely important in encouraging that work, too, and it is important that we continue that encouragement.

It is all about our engaging with the sector now to see how we can best utilise the available budget, and that is why the summit in December was so important. Some of the actions that were identified related to improvements that we can make to the woodland development process and how we can better develop people across the sector. All of that work can continue.

We all want full utilisation of the budget to ensure that we get as many trees in the ground as possible, and that work will continue. I want to ensure that we utilise the available budget that we have as well as we possibly can, and we will, of course, engage with key stakeholders as we look to do that.

Again, that is where the engagement that is happening right now and how we move forward with the available budget will be absolutely critical.

As I set out in one of my previous responses, 14,000 hectares’ worth of approvals are coming through. We want to make sure that we get all those hectares planted and that we utilise the available budget as best we can. That means that there could be some tweaks in how we award the funding in order to make sure that we maximise its impact as much as we can.

Ultimately, we do not want to be in a position of having really helped to drive forward the industry—whether that is nurseries, timber or the wider industry—and having encouraged farmers and crofters to do more agroforestry and riparian planting, then seeing that scaled back. We want to continue with the momentum that has been building.

You are absolutely right that we have not met all of our planting targets in previous years. That is why we had the woodland summit towards the end of last year to try to address the significant shortfall from the target of the previous year.

We have been encouraged by the level of approvals that have come through for this year, which is why I want to make sure that we utilise all the available funding. We will continue to work with the sector to ensure that we are all working together to deliver the goals that we all want. We want a thriving forestry sector because it is worth so much to our economy, as well as to our timber supply, and not least because of its climate impact. We want to make sure that we work together with the sector into the future.

Yes. I am sorry for launching myself into that question. I will touch on the point that Ms McAllan made about looking at the issue from a Marine Scotland perspective.

There was an increase in budget for Marine Scotland last year, specifically in relation to offshore wind. There has been a slight decrease in the overall marine directorate budget, but that is because a number of different recoupment controls and operational efficiencies have been considered for generating some of the savings that are required. There has also been a focus on maximising the income streams to the directorate. Obviously, revenues come into the directorate from commercial science activity, licensing fees and energy consenting fees.

It is also important to highlight the sheer scale of the work that the marine directorate undertakes. You asked about offshore energy consenting, which is a huge element of the work. Another vital component is our marine science and research. The directorate also has enforcement and compliance costs in relation to our fisheries and seafood.

I wanted to add some more to the context and to set out the overall budget position within the area.

AECS is an important fund for us. Out of all the funds that we have, it is the one that delivers against the objectives on climate mitigation and the nature enhancement activities that we want to see. It is also one of the key mechanisms that we have for increasing the amount of land that is farmed organically, and it has been very successful in that regard.

In previous years, we have had to restrict certain rounds or restrict the things that we are looking to fund within that, because of various financial constraints that we faced. In the current budget—remembering, of course, that AECS contracts are essentially rolling ones year on year—just over £16 million of the AECS allocation will go on previous year’s contracts that have been agreed. With the remainder of the budget that we have for AECS, I believe that we should be able to finance the vast majority of applications that came through to AECS this year.

AECS is not the only funding mechanism we have that can help deliver the climate and biodiversity enhancements that we want. We have the greening payment. We have the nature restoration fund, which sits within not my portfolio but the net zero, energy and transport portfolio. We have the farm advisory service. We have several other pots that still contribute to the overall objectives, even though they do not sit under the AECS umbrella.

Yes. We are still to announce the outcome of the applications for the 2023 round. We are going through the budget discussions at the moment, but, as I said, through the funding that we have allocated in the budget, we expect to be able to fund the vast majority of the applications in the 2023 round.

Yes, I will be having those discussions with the Deputy First Minister. You are right that the £15 million is part of the £61 million deferred funding that has been returned to the portfolio and that we have had the agreement to switch to capital funding. That remains and means that we have £46 million outstanding. The Deputy First Minister has confirmed that that will be returned to the portfolio, but the sequencing of that and how the money can be utilised is subject to further discussion. I am happy to keep the committee updated on that.