£250 million funding package spend for peatland restoration: EIR release

Information requested

How much of the £250 million ten-year funding package announced in 2020 pledged for peatland restoration has been spent, what organisations have spent it, and how much peatland has been restored using these funds?

Response

In February 2020, the Scottish Government announced its commitment to invest £250 million over ten years to restore 250,000 hectares of degraded peatland by 2030.

The Scottish Government funds five delivery partners to undertake peatland restoration in order to meet these targets: NatureScot (in particular its Peatland Action programme); Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority; Cairngorms National Park Authority; Forestry and Land Scotland; Scottish Water.

The following table shows budget transferred to these delivery partners for peatland restoration and the number of hectares restored in the financial years 2020-21 and 2021-22. Restoration figures for the current financial year, 2022-23, will be finalised after end of March 2023.

	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23
Hectares restored	5,658	5,370	TBC
Capital (£m)	4.22	12.13	17.097
Resource (£m)	3.74	3.45	4.664
Total transferred (£m)	7.96	15.58	21.761

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