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I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-11940 on 2 November 2017. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at

The National Council of Rural Advisers will provide an interim report on the implications of Brexit before the end of 2017. Their final recommendations report on policy and principles for future rural support will be published in late spring 2018.

a) In July 2017 I wrote to over 200 rural stakeholders inviting them to submit views and evidence to the National Council of Rural Advisers. In addition, anyone can contact the National Council via the mailbox [email protected]. Contact details are published on the National Council of Rural Advisers webpage of the Scottish Government website.

b) Any stakeholder can contact the Agriculture Champions via the mailbox [email protected] to submit evidence through the secretariat provided by the Scottish Government.

Several stakeholder organisations have already taken the opportunity to submit reports and papers to both the Champions and the National Council.

While it is for the National Council of Rural Advisers and for each of the Agricultural Champions, and their groups to determine which organisations and individuals they wish to meet and engage with, we would expect both the National Council of Rural Advisers and Agricultural Champions to seek and take account of views from a wide variety of stakeholders. This would include environmental organisations with an interest in the rural economy and farming and food production. I have written to over 200 stakeholders to encourage them to submit views and evidence to the National Council for its consideration.

The Agricultural Champions have attended the last two meetings of the . Minutes of these meetings, as well as the agenda and action log of the meetings, are published on the Scottish Government website.

The Review group chaired by Professor Russel Griggs was tasked with considering the detailed implementation arrangements for the planned changes to 2018 greening rules, announced in February. The Group has provided its advice on these changes and that has been incorporated into the detailed guidance on 2018 greening measures that was published recently.

The Group was also asked to consider further possible changes to the rules, including taking account of the European Commission’s Simplification Review of greening, the group are still considering their advice in relation to this.

To date, two agroforestry applications have been submitted through the Forestry Grant Scheme. Both schemes were subsequently withdrawn and therefore no grant money for agroforestry has been awarded. Efforts continue to engage with the agricultural sector to promote the benefits of agroforestry grants.

The Scottish Government provides secretariat support to both the National Council of Rural Advisers and the Agriculture Champions. The Champions, their working groups and the National Council members do not receive any remuneration for their services other than travel and subsistence expenses. The Scottish Government would like to thank the Champions, it’s working group members and the National Council, for giving up their time so freely to help develop recommendations on future policy.

Agreement of a deal does not circumvent any statutory requirements and we expect local authorities to take this into account.

Local Authorities are responsible for producing Local Development Plans, therefore we would expect Local Authorities to take cognisance of these in developing any deal proposals.

In developing any deal proposals, we expect Local Authorities to ensure that they engage and consult their communities of place and interest alongside the broader public sector, local businesses, industry and academia, to ensure that propositions have been informed by the principles of inclusive growth. In our Enterprise and Skills Review, we emphasised the importance of demonstrating engagement and inclusive growth to inform deals where government funding is sought.