1. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its plans to support community gardens. (S6O-02680)

We recognise the benefits that community gardens can bring to the wellbeing of individuals, bringing communities together and improving local biodiversity. This year, we are providing £100,000 to the Green Action Trust to deliver the growing food together fund. Eight community food growing projects will benefit from that fund, which aims to increase the land available for community growing and to improve food-growing skills, empowering communities and individuals to grow their own food.

Community growing projects have also benefited from investment through the empowering communities programme, and a further £3.7 million from the vacant and derelict land investment programme will directly support six growing projects.

The Greyfriars biophilic community garden, in my Constituency, has been shortlisted for the

Evening Times community garden champion team awards later this year, with the winners being announced on 5 December. With projects involving the local community and improving primary schools, the community garden has been a force for good in the local community. Does the Minister agree that community gardens provide significant improvements and wellbeing benefits and that Greyfriars is a shining example of what can be achieved by involving the community?

I absolutely agree. I am delighted to hear that

Greyfriars biophilic community garden has been nominated for the

Evening Times community champion team awards. I wish it all the best in that. I am sure that the garden is a wonderful place, and I will put it on my list of gardens to visit. It is an excellent example of the huge range of benefits brought by community gardens, which include but are not limited to increased nature-based volunteering opportunities and education. Communities up and down the country are already reaping the many benefits of community gardens, which, as the member says, include significant environmental and wellbeing benefits. I wish them all the best.

I put on record my thanks to James Barnes, David Lydiat and Stan Green for hosting an amazing meeting of the cross-party group on gardening and horticulture in the Parliament last week, at which we discussed the need for horticulturists, gardeners and farmers for future generations. How can the Minister and the Government support skills and training to contribute to those sectors?

I had a good discussion with Stan Green, who had a stand on horticulture in the corridors of the Parliament. It was great to meet him, and it sounds as if the CPG meeting was great, too.

Our vacant and derelict land investment programme demonstrates our commitment to bringing sites back into use, particularly for horticulture. There are a number of such sites throughout Scotland, and they can use the funding for whatever they want to do in that space, including training. As I mentioned in response to Kaukab Stewart, that is what the two streams of funding are doing. We are talking not just about equipment, plants and soil; the funding can be used for training, too. It is up to individual projects to decide how to use the money, but there is certainly funding available.