Policy for providing agricultural new entrant opportunities: FOI release

Information requested

Policy for providing agricultural new entrant opportunities on the Scottish Ministers/RPID estate in Scotland.

Response

The majority of the Scottish Ministers rural estate is under crofting tenure, with only three agricultural units outwith crofting tenure, two are tenanted and one is managed by SGRPID for the operations of the Crofting Cattle Improvement scheme.

Our croft tenancy letting policy aligns to the National Development Plan for Crofting, that sets out the Scottish Governments commitment to increase the active use and occupancy of crofts, as well as attracting new entrants. When a croft tenancy is passed back to the Scottish Ministers, we let crofts to the most suitable applicant, with priority given to new entrants to crofting.

Our farm tenancy letting policy aligns to the 2024/25 Programme for Government (Serving Scotland), which gives the commitment to review the government’s landholdings to explore opportunities to create openings for new entrants into farming. If a farm tenancy becomes available, we will offer the tenancy opportunity to new entrants to farming.

About FOI

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.