Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and the Islands agricultural funding statement: EIR release

Information requested

Sources to be provided to support the claim made on 17 April 2024 by the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and the Islands, Mairi Gougeon, that the UK Government provides agricultural funding on an annual basis and that the UK Government only provides agricultural funding to Scotland as resource spending.

Response

As outlined here in the Statement of Funding policy, agricultural funding is a form of ring-fenced funding that is provided to the Scottish Government by the UK Government.

Full details of the funding provided to the Scottish Government by the UK Government are published annually as part of the UK Supplementary Estimates process. These reports can be found online here.

For Spending Review 2021 all amounts of agriculture funding – described as Farm funding, Fisheries funding and Bew funding in the reports - received are resource funding which is outlined in the relevant reports.

The following Supplementary Estimates are covered by Spending Review 2021 and this approach will continue until the end of the Spending Review period after 2024-25.

• Supplementary Estimates – 2021-22
• Supplementary Estimates – 2022-23
• Supplementary Estimates – 2023-24

There is no scope for carrying forward ring-fenced agricultural funding through the Scotland Reserve for future financial years. If the Scottish Government underspends against these budgets then this funding is lost, meaning all funding must be spent in the year it is allocated.

About FOI

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