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I absolutely have concerns about it, but I come back to the point that I made at the start of the meeting. I am not happy with the budget settlement that I have. Ideally, I would love to plough more funding into some more of these areas. The fact is that we have the envelope that we have. There are similar challenges across Government, and I know that none of these decisions are easy. Of course, it concerns me.

Some of the cuts to my capital budget also concern me, but, ultimately, we have to try to find a way to work within the envelopes that we have, and that will be no different for HIE. I will work with HIE and with Neil Gray, the Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy, to make sure that we are still maximising the positive impact that we can have on rural and island areas.

AECS is an important fund for us. Out of all the funds that we have, it is the one that delivers against the objectives on climate mitigation and the nature enhancement activities that we want to see. It is also one of the key mechanisms that we have for increasing the amount of land that is farmed organically, and it has been very successful in that regard.

In previous years, we have had to restrict certain rounds or restrict the things that we are looking to fund within that, because of various financial constraints that we faced. In the current budget—remembering, of course, that AECS contracts are essentially rolling ones year on year—just over £16 million of the AECS allocation will go on previous year’s contracts that have been agreed. With the remainder of the budget that we have for AECS, I believe that we should be able to finance the vast majority of applications that came through to AECS this year.

AECS is not the only funding mechanism we have that can help deliver the climate and biodiversity enhancements that we want. We have the greening payment. We have the nature restoration fund, which sits within not my portfolio but the net zero, energy and transport portfolio. We have the farm advisory service. We have several other pots that still contribute to the overall objectives, even though they do not sit under the AECS umbrella.

Yes. We are still to announce the outcome of the applications for the 2023 round. We are going through the budget discussions at the moment, but, as I said, through the funding that we have allocated in the budget, we expect to be able to fund the vast majority of the applications in the 2023 round.

Yes, I will be having those discussions with the Deputy First Minister. You are right that the £15 million is part of the £61 million deferred funding that has been returned to the portfolio and that we have had the agreement to switch to capital funding. That remains and means that we have £46 million outstanding. The Deputy First Minister has confirmed that that will be returned to the portfolio, but the sequencing of that and how the money can be utilised is subject to further discussion. I am happy to keep the committee updated on that.

The £46 million is still to be returned, so that would be in future years’ budgets.

If you have particular concerns that are being raised with you, I am more than happy to look into that. It is not a concern that I have had raised directly with me. You will be aware that the Minister for Energy and the Environment has responsibility for crofting, and I do not know whether that issue has been raised with her.

With some of the crofting schemes, we look to make improvements where we can. If you look to the croft house grant as an example of that, we have increased the grant rate for that and we have also looked at introducing measures for energy efficiency that did not exist previously. If there are adjustments that we can make within that or if that is something that we need to look at, I am more than happy to follow that up with the Minister for Energy and the Environment and consider it further.

Again, Dave Signorini will have more detail on that. It is fair to say that there has been a fair amount of transformation in the marine directorate, with a focus on reducing costs where possible.

I will need to follow up on that directly and look into the circumstances. I am not able to say right now whether there has been communication on that or what involvement there has been. Perhaps Dave Signorini has more information on that.

I am happy to do so. I understand that the committee will be disappointed that it looks like a cut on the previous year’s funding; of course, the funding is lower. As I said the last time that I appeared at the committee, when you look at the capital spending review and the overall allocations, you will see that nothing had been spent against the islands programme. That is why I am delighted that we can, in spite of the very difficult financial circumstances that we are in, particularly with our capital budget, continue with the islands programme for the coming year, including providing vital funding for the carbon-neutral islands project.

On overall funding for the islands, £1.5 million in the islands programme has been allocated for resource funding and £3 million has been allocated for capital funding, and for the carbon-neutral islands project we have allocated £0.9 million resource funding and £1.3 million of capital funding. Taking those two programmes as a whole, there is an overall funding envelope of £6.7 million for the coming financial year.

I would like to think that we are. I think that I have said to the committee previously that our having an islands team that works extensively across and with other portfolios in the Government has been critical in helping to develop and further that understanding. It is built into decisions that are taken within various portfolios and there is engagement right from the outset. I do not know whether Erica Clarkson wants to add to that.