(S4O-00940) Agricultural Support (Map Scale)

Tavish Scott (Shetland Islands) (LD): 2. To ask the Scottish Executive what map scale is used to assess land eligible for agricultural support under the integrated administration and control system 2012. (S4O-00940)

The Minister for Environment and Climate Change (Stewart Stevenson): The mapping scale used to assess land eligible for agricultural support under the integrated administration and control system 2012 is based on the Ordnance Survey’s MasterMap topography layer and is 1:2,500 in rural areas and 1:10,000 in mountain and moorland areas.

Tavish Scott: Is the minister aware that a Shetland farmer faces potential financial ruin because of the IACS penalty regime? The National Farmers Union Scotland has told me that that farmer is not alone, and the union is in active discussions on solutions to the issue. Will the minister ensure that his department and the industry agree on the scale of maps to be used on an individual farm or croft? Will the Scottish Government, until that agreement is in place, consider introducing a moratorium to stop the unfair and entirely disproportionate penalties hitting crofters and farmers, not just in Shetland, but across Scotland?

Stewart Stevenson: We issue maps to other scales, where the original map may be to the scales that I have referred to. In relation to a series of ways in which individual farmers may mitigate the effects of errors, I am quite prepared—I am meeting the member this afternoon on another matter—to provide some further information to the member.

Rob Gibson (Caithness, Sutherland and Ross) (SNP): Will the minister explain whether there was any discussion by the previous Labour-Liberal Government, or the Scottish National Party Government, with Ordnance Survey on a process to ensure that accurate maps on every part of Scotland are available so that the current problems would not arise?

Stewart Stevenson: I am not in a position to have access to all the discussions that previous Administrations may have had. I am not aware of such discussions having taken place since the baseline nearly a decade ago.