Chamber and committees

It is anticipated, at this stage, that the report will be submitted by the Directorate for Planning and Environmental Appeals (DPEA) in the first week in October.

Scottish Planning Policy 1: The planning system seeks to ensure that 80% of all applications called-in for determination by Scottish ministers are determined within two months of receipt of the report from the DPEA and 100% of cases within three months.

It is anticipated, at this stage, that the report will be submitted by the Directorate for Planning and Environmental Appeals in the first week in October.

The Scottish Government does not have to alter current policy, in light of the recent bad weather conditions because the Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition (GAEC) measures for Scotland were drawn up to reflect Scottish conditions and the country''s wide variability of soils, habitats and farming systems.

The Scottish Cross Compliance regulations make provision for the effects of adverse weather conditions such as are being experienced this year.

In the first half of December. NFU Scotland and the Scottish Agricultural College have agreed to conduct test runs with selected farmers before the revised guidance is published. It is planned that the guidance will be put on the Scottish Government website in early November and that copies of the guidance will be sent to all farmers in the nitrate vulnerable zones in early December. In addition, the Scottish Agricultural College will conduct a number of workshops to explain the new rules and procedures.

Several actions are being taken to assist farmers who may be affected by the revised Nitrate Vulnerable Zone Action Programme. In particular, they may be eligible for funding from the Scotland Rural Development Programme towards the costs of manure and slurry storage. We will be issuing guidance on the new requirements, and the Scottish Agricultural College is preparing a series of workshops. We have established the Nitrates Directive Stakeholder Group to identify ways in which farmers can most effectively make the transition from the current to the new action programme requirements. This will reduce the risk of fertiliser pollution in Scotland, and help farmers get more value from both organic and inorganic fertilisers.

Details of expenditure on woodland creation in the past five years and planned expenditure in the next five years are listed in the following tables.

Details of Expenditure: Past Five Years

Woodland Creation
	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
Private Sector	£10,300,000	£8,300,000	£8,000,000	£11,700,000	£8,400,000
National Forest Estate	£400,000	£430,000	£90,000	£75,000	£165,000

 

Details of Planned Expenditure

Woodland Creation
	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13
Private Sector	£25,000,000	£25,000,000	£25,000,000	£25,000,000	£25,000,000
National Forest Estate	£2,100,000	£2,200,000	£2,240,000	Dependent on next Spending Review	Dependent on next Spending Review

 

Any farmer or land manager with land in Scotland may choose to apply under Land Managers Options (LMOs) provided they also submit a single application form (SAF). Together with any existing ongoing five year commitments under land management contracts menu scheme (LMCMS), the total must not exceed a total allowance calculated in accordance with the amount of land they have. Of the 51,000 farm holdings in Scotland, around 21,000 claim CAP funds through the single application and IACS. Of those, around half choose to apply for LMCMS and LMOs. Currently, around one third of the total LMCMS and LMO applicants have applied for LMOs. This figure is likely to rise as existing five year LMCMS commitments end.

Earlier this year, Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) indicated in its Scottish Forestry Strategy Implementation Plan that a sustained programme of around 10,000 hectares of new planting would be required each year to achieve the strategy aspiration of 25% woodland cover by the second half of the century. FCS estimated that the private sector would plant 80% of the annual programme, while the remainder would be planted on the national forest estate. It is therefore too early to assess progress against this programme, particularly as the incentives to help delivery, the forestry measures within the SRDP, have just been put in place after the closure of the Scottish Forestry Grant Scheme last year. Progress will, however, be monitored closely over the coming years, and the figures will be published. Planting on the national forest estate will be mainly carried out on land acquired by FCS through its repositioning programme “ the acquisition of land with potential for high public benefit, funded by the disposal of land with lower public benefit “ which was also introduced earlier this year.

In the meantime, FCS has published a discussion paper which sets out the benefits that woodland expansion can deliver and how this fits with the Government''s objectives across various portfolios. It explores a number of critical wider land use issues that affect how the aspirational target can be achieved, and discusses how the delivery mechanisms can be used. The closing date for comments on the paper is 30 September 2008.

The discussion paper can viewed on the FCS website at http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/INFD-7FWEQ5.

Our proposals, which were widely welcomed, give effect to the devolution of fisheries management in the Scotland Act 1998. The principle of having a separate quota management and licensing system for Scotland is recognised in statute and we have simply consulted on the detail of what such a system might look like.

The deadline for written responses to our consultation was 21 August and an initial assessment indicates that our proposals have been widely welcomed.

Responses have been received from the NFFO and SFF and these are now being considered carefully along with all the others received. We will shortly produce an outcome of consultation report upon which we will seek final stakeholders'' views before it is formally promulgated.