Scottish Government

Building a Better Scotland

ENVIRONMENT AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT

To increase prosperity in rural Scotland, to improve the environment and promote sustainable development throughout Scotland.

⁽¹⁾ The target in the SR 2002 plans was to reduce risk for 1,850 properties by the end of 2005-06 (including 750 properties in 2005-06). The increased target of 4,950 above is for the Spending Review period and includes the previously planned reduction of 750 for 2005-06.

What we will do

The Environment and Rural Development portfolio covers expenditure by the Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department (SEERAD) and the Forestry Commission (FC).

SEERAD has responsibility for setting the budgets for and monitoring the performance of Scottish Water, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and the Loch Lomond and Trossachs and Cairngorm National Park Authorities. These bodies deliver water and sewerage services, conserve and improve Scotland's natural heritage, protect and improve Scotland's environment and promote the sustainable development and enjoyment of the national parks. The department also funds a range of measures in support of the National Waste Strategy.

The department has an important wider role in promoting rural issues but the delivery of our rural commitments is dependent on spending across the Executive's departments and is not restricted to the Environment and Rural Development plans set out here. Rural Development spending by SEERAD is mainly in support of the farming and fishing sectors. The department also supports a significant programme of research in agricultural, biological and environmental science, the majority of which is undertaken by the Scottish Agricultural and Biological Research Institutes (SABRIs), Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) and Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh (RBGE). Spending by the Forestry Commission promotes sustainable forestry, mainly through grant aid and partnership working and management of publicly owned forests.

The department also has a cross-cutting responsibility for promoting the principles of sustainable development across the Executive as a whole, including in our own activities. We are also committed to ensuring that in everything we do we work towards growing the economy, promoting equality and closing the opportunity gap.

Much of the spending within the portfolio is in discharge of inescapable EU commitments where the policy framework is decided by the EU Council of Ministers.

Over the Spending Review period we intend to address the ever increasing requirements for compliance with a range of inescapable EU commitments, particularly in respect of environmental and fisheries management issues and the problems of intellectual and financial critical mass which affect the SABRIs.

We will maintain support for Scottish Water (at current levels, pending decisions on the Quality and Standards (Q+S3) investment programme for the period 2006-14 and the levels of charges for 2006-10) and provide the baseline needed to support our two National Parks Authorities and increase spending under the Strategic Waste Fund. We will provide additional resources to increase significantly the number of properties protected from flooding and make a significant start to the rolling out across Scotland of noise nuisance services.

We will provide additional support for the marketing and processing of Scottish farm produce, for the revised Scottish Rural Partnership Fund and to allow the Forestry Commission to establish a Timber Transport Fund and proceed with the Woodlands in and Around Towns initiative. We will provide additional resources to assist the growth of the aquaculture industry.

That is why we will, in 2006-07 and 2007-08:

• provide 5.7/10.7m to make up for the previous shortfall in baseline for Scotland's two National Park Authorities and to provide additional support for SNH activities in relation to statutory obligations and the Natural Care programme;
• invest an extra 9.3/15.3m on waste management to secure the delivery of the Executive's 2010 landfill reduction target;
• provide an extra 4.3/11.3m in support of SEPA and to begin the roll out of Noise Nuisance Services across Scotland;
• invest an additional 19/28m in the capital works programme to reduce the risk of flooding for an additional 4,200 properties;
• provide 1/2m to support communities seriously affected by quarrying, landfill and opencast workings;
• provide an extra 1/1m to support Scottish Rural Partnership Fund projects which help Close the Opportunity Gap and allow improvements to the Crofting Building Grants and Loans Scheme;
• increase by 3/4.8m provision for agriculture marketing projects;
• increase by 7/11m support for environmental and biological science;
• increase by 8/6m provision for fisheries protection and science and support for aquaculture, to meet increased EU enforcement requirements, assist the devolved management of inshore fisheries and further the aims of the Strategic Framework for Aquaculture; and
• increase by 9/12m support for the forestry sector, enabling the establishment of a Timber Transport Fund and launch of the Forestry Commission's Woods in and Around Towns initiative.

The Executive received additional resources - 8/15/23m - arising from the Landfill Tax. Of these, 5.8/9.3/21.8m are allocated here to address a range of waste requirements, including business resource efficiency. The balance of these resources is allocated to local authority GAE provision to address landfill, fly-tipping and abandoned vehicle issues.

We will also ensure that we secure the best possible value for money over the Spending Review period. Scottish Water has already delivered efficiency savings of around 20 per cent (over 60m) in its operating costs. Future plans for spending in support of Scottish Water, in the next Strategic Review of Charges period, will include a further, testing, requirement for efficiency savings. While increases are proposed for the range of NDPBs and Agencies covered by the programme and for the Forestry Commission, the bodies will be expected to deliver a range of additional outputs, including increased obligations in relation to the EU Natura 2000 Directive, water monitoring, fisheries enforcement and inshore fisheries management. As part of the Executive's Efficient Government Review, aiming to release resources for frontline delivery, all our bodies are exploring options for efficiencies through, for instance, more efficient procurement and inter-organisational co-operation. Our detailed plans will be included in the Executive's Efficient Government plan to be published in the autumn.

The plans reflect a degree of de-prioritisation so as to allow greater focus on new priorities. Planned provision for the successor measure to the current EU Financial Instrument for Fisheries Guidance (FIFG) and for (non-Scottish Water) water provision will be reduced, in each case, by 2m a year from 2006-07. The closure of the Farm Waste Grant Scheme will save 4/5.8m.

Table 11.01 Spending plans 2004-08 (level 2)

⁽¹⁾ Rural Development spending is funded partly by national (DEL) resources and partly by EU (AME) resources. The DEL plans shown include some 36m a year of match funding DEL. Actual gross spending on Rural Development measures depends on policy decisions yet to be taken on the rates of modulation of CAP payments to be applied over the period and the precise measures for which such resources will be used.

⁽²⁾ Plans for Agricultural and Biological Science etc are distorted by the one-off allocation of some 16m in 2004-05 for the re-location of SASA and reduced provision of some 16m in 2005-06 to reflect the one-off estimated receipts in that year from subsequent disposal of the SASA site at East Craigs in Edinburgh. That reduction to 2005-06 baseline is restored in 2006-07 and 2007-08 and any measurement of effective growth in the baselines over the period shown should take account of these exceptional items.

⁽³⁾ The baseline for CAP Market Support spending effectively rolls forward the baseline set in SR 2002. Actual spending is determined by EU decisions and funded by the UK Treasury outside the block and formula arrangements. In the light of CAP Reform, spending over the next three years is expected to increase to over 400m a year.