Continuing Professional Development (CPD) system in Tier 4 of the Agricultural Reform Programme – Partial Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment – August 2026

Section 5: Next steps and implementation

As noted, Scottish Ministers have not made any decisions on the CPD system.

Recommendations/ preferred options

We recommend the option of the CPD system for specific occupational groups within agriculture and crofting with a framework to undertake CPD and participate in a range of CPD activities. It will be for Ministers to decide whether to introduce it.

Doing nothing would mean that personal and professional development in agriculture would have less impact than it could have, It would mean that knowledge and skills activities would not be brought together within a structured and co-ordinated way. It would mean that businesses would be less likely to meet their objectives as well as the objectives of the Scottish Government’s Vision for Agriculture and other policies and targets. It would also mean that Scotland would lag behind other countries in the UK and Europe that have already established and are using CPD systems.

Implementation considerations / plan

The CPD system would be implemented as part of Tier 4 of the Agricultural Reform Programme. The policies in Tier 4 – as in the rest of the Programme – will be co-developed with stakeholders. The policy work for the CPD will be further developed through analysis of responses to a public consultation as well as discussions with other Tiers in the Agricultural Reform Programme.

Key stages in the development of the CPD system, will be updated in the “Route Map”, for which there are a number of updates each year. Stakeholders will also be updated during consultation activities. It is expected that guidance for the CPD system would come into operation before the system comes into operation.

Post implementation review

The CPD system would be subject to monitoring and evaluation. This would take place in a number of ways: evaluation of CPD activities by participants (ie post event monitoring and evaluation); provider evaluation as part of any contract(s) to deliver the CPD system (portal and activities) (eg through annual reports and business plans), and wider evaluation as part of the monitoring and evaluation of the Agricultural Reform Programme. Any changes identified could be incorporated as the programme is running, as well as at the end of contract periods, and key points of the Agricultural Reform Programme.