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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee 17 February 2026 [Draft]

17 Feb 2026 · S6 · Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee

Item of business

NatureScot (Annual Report and Accounts and Future Priorities)

Nick Halfhide (NatureScot) Watch on SPTV

Good morning. Thank you very much for inviting us along. On behalf of my chairman, I offer his apologies. He had very much hoped to be with us today but, unfortunately, he has flu. We have Pete Higgins instead.I will make a few opening comments. First, we are Scotland’s public nature agency, so we are your public nature agency. We want to halt the decline in Scotland’s biodiversity by 2030 and restore Scotland’s nature by 2045. This is of pivotal importance to us all, as we risk losing the beauty, value and benefits of nature because our natural world is still in crisis.Our recently launched corporate plan for the next four years sets out how we will work to address this head on. The plan focuses on strengthening our resilience to the impacts of climate change by reconnecting people and nature. Our efforts will be bolstered by the passing of the pioneering Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill, which places Scotland on a path to statutory targets for nature, as well as by the recently approved Scottish biodiversity strategy.I will say a little bit about us. As an organisation, we have grown significantly over the past four to five years. At the start of this parliamentary session, according to our own annual accounts for 2020-21, our budget was about £60 million and we employed just under 600 full-time staff. By 2024-25, the budget was closer to £90 million and we employed just over 750 staff. Our budget for this financial year is approaching £100 million.During that time, our impact and reach has grown, too. The £65 million nature restoration fund is an unprecedented commitment to nature recovery that has supported more than 240 projects through the competitive scheme that we run. We have put more than 30,000 hectares of degraded peat on the road to recovery, which obviously reduces greenhouse gas emissions and provides jobs and economic opportunities.The Scottish marine environmental enhancement fund—SMEEF—has distributed around £4 million, supporting 62 marine projects, up until the end of last year.Taken together, this tells the story of a Government that trusts us to deliver and sees our growing relevance. However, the demands that are placed on us as an organisation, through new legal responsibilities and increasing demand, have grown significantly, creating resourcing challenges for us and leading to increased workloads for our hard-working and dedicated staff.We also know that we continue to work in a challenging fiscal environment, which means that we must be more creative in how we deliver. Our work is complex and, at times, contentious, which is why we are investing considerable resources in working with, and listening to, people to find common solutions where we can.However, equally, we cannot avoid what the evidence and science are telling us about the most effective ways to urgently address the nature and climate emergencies, even if that means that our decisions and advice may, sometimes, run counter to what is perceived as popular opinion. We know that that can prompt a strong response from some in the general public and in this Parliament and has, at times, led to comments that have, in our view, crossed the line. There appears to be some lack of understanding of our role and responsibilities and there is clearly more for us to do to bridge that gap in understanding.We all have our own experiences of the many benefits that nature can bring to our lives and I remain confident that we can meet the challenge ahead of us and can secure a Scotland where nature thrives and where people and businesses can flourish too.

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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee 17 February 2026 [Draft]

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