Submitted online to the Scottish Government consultation on “Delivering our Vision for Scottish Agriculture. Proposals for a new Agriculture Bill”
Submitted on 2022-12-05
1. Future Payment Framework
1 Do you agree with the proposal set out above, in relation to the Agriculture Bill including a mechanism to enable payments to be made
under a 4 tiered approach?
No
Please give reasons:
The Future Payment Framework should include the provision for farmers to protect and/or enhance the historic environment as well as the natural
environment. The natural environment is in effect a cultural product of millennia of human interaction with the land. The Welsh Agriculture (Wales) Bill
provides a good example of how this is being done – in particular through the fourth objective of that piece of legislation where “cultural resources”
explicitly includes “cultural heritage and the historic environment”.
It is vitally important that this Agriculture Bill recognises the importance of the historic environment and provides the mechanisms for farmers to
understand, protect where necessary, or enhance the heritage value of their property or the land they steward. This importance has been recognised in
the new draft of NPF4 and in Scotland’s National Historic Environment Strategy “Our Place in Time”; this recognition must be carried through to this
important Bill. Ministers should be able, through this Bill, to support “maintaining and enhancing public access to and engagement with the countryside
and the historic environment”.
2 Do you agree that Tier 1 should be a ‘Base Level Direct Payment’ to support farmers and crofters engaged in food production and land
management?
Don’t know
Please give reasons:
3 Do you agree that Tier 2 should be an ‘Enhanced Level Direct Payment’ to deliver outcomes relating to efficiencies, reducing greenhouse gas
emissions and nature restoration and enhancement?
No
Please give reasons:
Tier 2 should also include “to conserve and enhance the countryside and historic environment and promote public access to and engagement with them”.
4 Do you agree that Tier 3 should be an Elective Payment to focus on targeted measures for nature restoration, innovation support and
supply chain support?
Don’t know
Please give reasons:
5 Do you agree that Tier 4 should be complementary support as the proposal outlines above?
No
If so what sort of Complementary Support do you think would be best to deliver the Vision? Please give reasons:
Complementary Support should include increased skills and understanding of the historic environment.
6 Do you agree that a ‘Whole Farm Plan’ should be used as eligibility criteria for the ‘Base Level Direct Payment’ in addition to Cross
Compliance Regulations and Greening measures?
Don’t know
Please give reasons:
7 Do you agree that the new Agriculture Bill should include a mechanism to help ensure a Just Transition?
Don’t know
Please give reasons:
8 Do you agree that the new Agriculture Bill should include mechanisms to enable the payment framework to be adaptable and flexible over
time depending on emerging best practice, improvements in technology and scientific evidence on climate impacts?
Yes
Please give reasons:
9 Do you agree that the new Agriculture Bill should include mechanisms to enable payments to support the agricultural industry when there
are exceptional or unforeseen conditions or a major crises affecting agricultural production or distribution?
Yes
Please give reasons:
2. Delivery of Key Outcomes: Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation
1 Do you agree with the proposal set out above, in relation to the new Agriculture Bill including measures to allow future payments to support
climate change mitigation objectives?
Not Answered
Do you have any views on specific powers and/or mechanisms that could support such alignment? Please give reasons:
2 Do you agree with the proposal set out above, in relation to the new Agriculture Bill including measures to allow future payments to support
climate change adaptation objectives?
Not Answered
Do you have any views on specific powers and/or mechanisms that could support such alignment? please give reasons:
3 Do you agree with the proposal set out above, in relation to the new Agriculture Bill including a mechanism to enable payments to be made
that are conditional on outcomes that support climate mitigation and adaptation measures, along with targeted elective payments?
Not Answered
Please give reasons:
4 Do you agree with the proposal set out above, in relation to the new Agriculture Bill including measures that support integrated land
management, such as peatland and woodland outcomes on farms and crofts, in recognition of the environmental, economic and social
benefits that it can bring?
Not Answered
Please give reasons:
2.1 Nature Protection and Restoration
1 Do you believe the new Agriculture Bill should include a mechanism to protect and restore biodiversity, support clean and healthy air, water
and soils, contribute to reducing flood risk locally and downstream and create thriving, resilient nature?
Yes
Please give reasons:
These same mechanisms should be provided to protect and where appropriate enhance the historic environment.
2 Do you believe the new Agriculture Bill should include a mechanism to enable payments that are conditional on outcomes that support
nature maintenance and restoration, along with targeted elective payments?
Yes
Please give reasons:
These same mechanisms should be provided conditional on outcomes that support the protection and where appropriate enhancement of the historic
environment.
3 Do you believe the new Agriculture Bill should include a mechanism to enable landscape/catchment scale payments to support nature
maintenance and restoration?
Yes
Please give reasons:
These same mechanisms should be provided to enable landscape scale payments to support the protection and where appropriate enhancement of the
historic environment.
2.3 Wider Rural Development
1 Do you agree that the proposals outlined above should be included in the new Agriculture Bill?
Yes
Please give reasons:
These proposals, especially those relating to rural development and economy, community-led development, collaboration, sharing of information and
good practice, innovation in land management, influence of policy and support for public access would all work well with regard to the principle that the
Bill enables support for the protection and where appropriate enhancement of the historic environment.
2 Are there other areas relating to non-agricultural land management such as forestry that you would like considered for support under the
Agriculture Bill to help deliver integrated land management and the products produced from it?
Yes
Please give reasons:
Non-agricultural land management should include managing historic environment assets for public benefit (recognising also that the historic
environment helps to deliver on the key issues of the climate crisis and biodiversity).
3 What other powers may be required to enable rural development in Scotland’s rural and island communities?
Don’t know
Please give reasons:
4 What potential social, economic or other impacts, either positive or negative, would such powers have on Scotland’s rural and island
communities?
Please give reasons:
Enabling the Bill to support the historic environment would bring public benefit through protecting and, where appropriate enhancing, our unique
historic environment. Increasing public access to historic environment assets could also, where appropriate, generate possible additional income
generation for land managers, as well as helping Scottish Government meet its aspirations with regard to the national Historic Environment Strategy for
Scotland (currently Our Place in Time).
3. Skills, Knowledge Transfer and Innovation
1 Do you agree that support should continue to be provided in this area?
Yes
Please give reasons:
Support should include that to enable the skills and understanding required to benefit from the historic environment in the industry – including but not
limited to, for example, how to search national and local databases holding data on our historic environment, and the provision of local authority
expertise to support land managers in their identification and management of the historic environment.
2 Is there any particular gaps in delivery that you can identify?
Yes
Please give reasons:
There is currently no provision for the Bill to support management of the historic environment as a non-agricultural land management practice.
3 Are there any alternative approaches that might deliver better results?
Don’t know
Please give reasons:
4 Do you have any ideas as to how engagement/participation in advisory services, knowledge transfer or skills development might be
improved?
Don’t know
Please give reasons:
5 Do you agree that Scottish Ministers should have the power to establish a national reserve and regional reserve if/when required to ensure
the equal treatment of farmers and to avoid distortions of the market and of the competition?
Don’t know
Please give reasons for your answer:
5. Modernisation of Agricultural Tenancies – please read before answering 5.1- 5.5
5.1 Agreement to Diversification
1 Do you agree that Scottish Ministers should have a power to be able to determine what is an acceptable diversification?
Yes
Please give reasons:
Diversification should include the historic environment; this would help support diversification of tenant farmers into, for example, other areas of tourism
based on the historic environment assets on the farm, or other means to generate revenue from their historic environment assets.
2 Do you think that if this power is given to Scottish Ministers that the Tenant Farming Commissioner should have the ability to issue
guidance to assist tenant farmers and landlords understand this.
Yes
Please give reasons:
5.3 Amendment to Rules of Good Husbandry and Good Estate Management
1 Do you agree that the Scottish Ministers should be able to amend the rules of good husbandry and good estate management defined in the
Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Act 1948 to enable tenant farmers and their landlords to be able meet future global challenges?
Yes
Please give reasons:
Assessing the Impact
1 Are you aware of any potential costs and burdens that you think may arise as a result of the proposals within this consultation?
Please give reasons:
2 Are you aware of any examples of potential impacts, either positive or negative, that you consider that any of the proposals in this
consultation may have on the environment?
Please give reasons:
Yes, as currently construed this bill would not include the historic environment as a managed resource for landowners, thereby likely leading to the
degradation and even loss of historic environment assets many of which are located on agricultural land of all types. This would go against the notable
agreement in, for example, the NPF4 where it is recognised that the historic environment is a valuable resource that has benefit for society in many ways,
and that negative impacts should be mitigated wherever possible. The “environment” includes, due to our human impact over millennia, the historic
environment.
3 Are you aware of any examples of particular current or future impacts, positive or negative, on young people, of any aspect of the proposals
in this consultation? Could any improvements be made?
Please give reasons :
The long-term sustainability of agricultural holdings is crucial to those young people who wish to have careers in the agriculture sector; allowing land
managers the opportunity to manage and develop alternative sources of income and helping to conserve and protect our historic environment are key to
ensuring the Scottish landscape can continue to provide jobs and appeal.
4 Are you aware of any impacts, positive or negative, of the proposals in this consultation on data protection or privacy?
Please give reasons :
5 Are you aware of any examples of how the proposals in this consultation may impact, either positively or negatively, on those with
protected characteristics (age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or
belief, sex and sexual orientation)?
Please give reasons :
6 Are you aware of any examples of how the proposals in this consultation might have particular positive or negative impacts on groups or
areas experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage? These could be households with low incomes or few resources; families struggling to make
ends meet; people who experienced poverty while growing up; or areas with few resources or opportunities compared with others.
Please give reasons :
7 Are you aware of any examples of how the proposals in this consultation might impact, positively or negatively, on island communities in a
way that is different from the impact on mainland areas?
Please give reasons :
Island areas tend to have disproportionately more historic environment assets surviving from the past due to low intensity farming in the recent past, the
continuation of a crofting heritage and a more durable asset in the first place. As such, it is more likely that the agriculture bill with an historic
environment provision would be able to help and support island communities. One without such a provision will disproportionately negatively impact
those same communities.
About you
1 What is your name?
Name:
Simon Gilmour
2 What is your email address?
Email:
director@socantscot.org
3 Are you responding as an individual or an organisation?
Organisation
4 What is your organisation?
Organisation:
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
5 What is your occupation?
Third sector (including charities)
6 The Scottish Government would like your permission to publish your consultation response. Please indicate your publishing preference:
Publish response with name
7 We will share your response internally with other Scottish Government policy teams who may be addressing the issues you discuss. They
may wish to contact you again in the future, but we require your permission to do so. Are you content for Scottish Government to contact you
again in relation to this consultation exercise?
Yes
8 I confirm that I have read the privacy policy and consent to the data I provide being used as set out in the policy.
I consent