Spend on producing the Rural Support Plan: EIR release

Information requested

Total amount that the Scottish Government has spent to date on producing the Rural Support Plan.

Response

As the information you have requested is 'environmental information' for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

The answer to your question is that the Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Act 2024 will introduce a new legislative requirement for a Rural Support Plan. It has received Royal Assent but the provisions within it have not yet been enacted. Therefore, the cost to date on producing the Rural Support Plan is nil.

The initial Rural Support Plan is intended to be drafted through 2025 and laid in Winter 2025, to reflect the published Route Map. The Agriculture Reform Programme will co-develop the detail of future support with rural partners and the Rural Support Plan will collate this information into a single strategic and coherent package. The involvement of partners will be essential in this process and the Rural Support Plan will further report upon such activity. Work on these areas is considered business as usual and part of normal duties.

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The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.