7. To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether agricultural support is delivering value for money. (S6O-02298)

First, I want to state that I remain committed to supporting active farming and food production, and we are doing that with direct payments to provide certainty and to support a just transition as we replace the common agricultural policy.

I am committed to co-development. We all accept that, to achieve our vision, we will require farmers and crofters to do more to deliver sustainable and regenerative farming and to maximise sustainable food production in ways that also actively benefit both nature and climate. That includes our commitment to shifting 50 per cent of direct payments to climate action and funding for on-farm nature restoration and enhancement by 2025.

In “Equality, opportunity, community: “New leadership—A fresh start”, the First Minister told us this. He said:

“it is imperative that transparency underpins our approach to delivery. My government will ensure the people of Scotland have the information they need to hold us to account”.

At the moment, when it comes to agricultural payments, we can see where the money goes and we can see what the money was claimed for, but we cannot identify who receives that money. So, in the interest of transparency, to ensure that the people of Scotland have the information they need, will the Cabinet secretary commit today to publish, and update regularly, a list of Scotland’s landowners who receive Scottish Government agricultural support, including a league table, by value, in order, broken down by gender, from those who receive the most to those who receive the least?

I thank the member for raising that really important point, because his question highlights just some of the issues that we need to try to balance in that regard. I think we want to—well, I know we want to—increase the transparency of who owns land in Scotland. That is why we have undertaken some measures so far. We also want to increase the diversity of land ownership in Scotland, and the proposals that we bring forward in the land reform bill will be critically important in relation to that. I look forward to continuing these discussions as we bring forward our agriculture bill and bring forward our land reform bill to really deliver on that transparency and accountability.

We get better value for money by supporting our farmers, crofters and fishermen. We also get better quality by buying food that is locally produced to high environmental standards. Would the Cabinet secretary be open to adopting Scottish Conservative plans to increase the amount of home-grown food that is purchased by local authorities by introducing a 60-60 target or strategy, in which, where possible, 60 per cent of the food purchased is sourced from farmers, fishermen and crofters who are within 60 miles of the region?

Those are commitments that we are already driving forward as a Government. Through our good food nation plan, our local food strategies and the food for life scheme, which we are delivering with the Soil Association, we want to deliver exactly that. If the member wants to have a discussion with me about the measures that we are undertaking or areas that we could look to develop further, I am more than happy to have that conversation.

Ultimately, we are all trying to achieve the same thing. We want to meet more of our own food needs sustainably, to produce that food in Scotland and to ensure that we have strong, local, resilient supply chains. First of all, we want to see more of our own produce ending up in the public sector in particular, where we have a lot of initiatives and a lot of levers that we can use to deliver that.

The Deputy Presiding Officer:

That concludes portfolio questions on rural affairs, land reform and islands. Sorry—I should have said that question 8 was not lodged.

There will be a very short pause before we move to the next item of business to allow front-bench teams to change position, should they wish.