Meeting of the Parliament 02 February 2016
I say to Jean Urquhart and other members that I appreciate the pressures facing many farming and crofting businesses throughout Scotland. They have had to contend with the recent storms and the flooding and wet weather over many months, as well as the low commodity prices and other issues facing the market not only in the United Kingdom and Europe but around the world. Of course, at the same time, we have had the biggest ever and most radical reforms to the common agricultural policy and to how it is implemented in Scotland. We are not only moving to area payments for the first time but introducing greening elements. Here in Scotland, we took an additional set of decisions to add more complexity to the new system—for good reasons, because we were trying to tailor a European policy to Scottish circumstances.
I am happy to ensure that the amount of money that has been issued to the Highlands and Islands is calculated in monetary terms, and I will forward that information to Jean Urquhart as soon as I can. In the meantime, I should point out that the reforms will lead to more payments going to the crofting counties between now and 2019.
We are doing our utmost to ensure that the payments go to as many crofters and farmers as possible before the end of March. The first instalment was to be a minimum of 70 per cent of the payment, but we have issued them with 80 per cent of the payment. I will do my best to keep Jean Urquhart and other members updated on the situation.