Information pertaining to marine developments: EIR release

Information requested

1. What work has been done on creating Scotland’s next statutory Climate change adaptation programme?

2. Whether new licensing arrangements to encourage those fishing Scottish seafish to increase the volume of valuable species processed in Scotland has been launched?

3. What work has been done on the development of a new national marine plan?

4. What work have been done to develop a vision for sustainable aquaculture?

5. What work has been done to explore capping and/or tapering base-level payments to farmers?

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 you request.

Information on the issues you have requested is available publicly. Where we have information available, we have provided links below. Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format.

1. The Scottish Government is working to provide a response to the UK Climate Change Risk Assessment (www.ukclimaterisk.org) and the recommendations set out in the Climate Change Committee’s March 2022 Scottish progress report on adaptation (https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/is-scotland-climate-ready-2022-report-to-scottishparliament/.This will take the form of the next statutory adaptation programme which will be published in draft for consultation in early 2024.

2. The new economic link licence condition came into effect on 1 January 2023:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/consultation-proposals-amend-economic-link-licence-conditionoutcome-report/

3. Ministers announced the intention to develop new National Marine Plan as part of the Programme for Government (2022-23). The Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Just Transition included a commitment to publish and begin implementation of a new national marine plan by 2026 in the First Minister’s Policy Prospectus April 2023.

The statutory Statement of Public Participation and supplementary Stakeholder Engagement Strategy were published in October 2022, to guide engagement with stakeholders during the national marine planning process: https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781804358641.

The Scottish Government Marine Directorate have established a Steering Group to provide advice on the statutory assessments and Sustainability Appraisal for NMP2, which are being undertaken to understand potential impacts on marine sectors and the marine environment from the proposals in the plan. The minutes of the April 2023 Steering Group meeting have been published: National Marine Plan 2 minutes: April 2023 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The first National Marine Planning Forum was held on 15 June and provided an opportunity for everyone with an interest in the plan to input into its development at an early stage. The forum is available to view on the Scottish Government Marine Directorate Youtube Channel.

4. The Scottish Government Marine Directorate published the Vision for Sustainable Aquaculture on 21st July 2023. The Vision is a Scottish Government (SG) led Vision and is published following an extensive period of research by SG which included interviews and collaboration with stakeholders across industry, communities, NGOs, academia and the wider supply chain. The Scottish Aquaculture Council supported development of the Vision through consideration of the draft Vision and supplied comments along with other external stakeholders which were incorporated into the final version. The Vision was a Programme for Government and Bute House Agreement commitment.

5. Capping and/or tapering is an existing Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) budget control mechanism. More information can be found in the published Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) guidance: https://www.ruralpayments.org/topics/all-schemes/basic-payment-scheme/basicpayment- scheme-full-guidance/main-features---bps.

The Scottish Government consulted on a new Agriculture Bill and payment framework to “allow for flexibility to weight payments, as the EU policy does through front loading, tapering and capping of payments should Ministers wish to do so.” The consultation document is published: Chapter 3: Proposals for Inclusion in the New Agriculture Bill - Delivering our vision for Scottish agriculture - proposals for a new Agriculture Bill: consultation - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

Research modelling regionalisation options was presented to the Agriculture Reform Implementation Oversight Board (ARIOB) in July 2022. The minutes and presentation are published: Agriculture Reform Implementation Oversight Board minutes: 28 July 2022 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) & Future Agricultural Policy - modelling Regionalisation Options — SRUC, Scotland's Rural College. Further work was commissioned and the Scottish Government is in the process of publishing all of the reports produced, including a summary document.

About FOI

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