Time to appoint a junior Minister in Rural Affairs
SLE's Press & Public Affairs Manager, Simon Ritchie, reflects on the enormous pressures on the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the growing need for First Minister Humza Yousaf to appoint a junior Minister in the Rural Affairs portfolio this summer
It’s been two months since Humza Yousaf got the keys to Bute House. To say he’s had a busy start would be an understatement. From internal Party issues to policy delivery challenges to court battles, the First Minister’s inbox would likely give the toughest among us The Fear.
Stepping back, we all know the world is facing two distinct-yet-intertwined man-made crises: global heating, and biodiversity loss. Scotland is no exception, and Scotland’s people and our political leaders are responsible for how we as a nation respond to those challenges.
The bad news is that the problem is very grave. The good news is, we have a lot going for us. Scotland and its land are ideally placed to show other countries how the main demands on our land – for food production, carbon reduction and biodiversity promotion – can be met in a way that protects jobs and communities.
To do that, we need to make much faster progress towards a future agriculture policy for Scotland. Farmers and land managers are ready to crack on, but they need to run profitable businesses and plan ahead, and cannot do so without more information from government on future payments and the nature of the strings attached to that support. A lot of work still needs to be done on this, and the clock is ticking loudly. Bringing forward a future agriculture policy lies with the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform & Islands, Mairi Gougeon.
On top of an Agriculture Bill this year, there’s a Bill due on Land Reform – also set for this year. Once again, how we use our land in Scotland in the years to come will make all the difference in how quickly we reach Net Zero carbon or halt the decline in biodiversity, both in keeping with a Just Transition. Tackling those things will require much more cash than the government can afford itself, as it has already accepted, and private investment into large scale projects will be key... but the Land Reform Bill also seeks to break up landholdings, making that investment harder to secure. So, the government has a huge amount of work still to do on Land Reform as well as agriculture. That responsibility lies with Ms Gougeon.
Two big pieces of rural-focused legislation in the next six months. Does it stop there? No! There’s a Wildlife Management & Muirburn Bill making its way through Parliament which again requires a great deal of work to get right. And that lies with… you guessed it – Mairi Gougeon.
So, agriculture, land reform, grouse shoot licences, muirburn licences, and much more all lie with the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs & Islands, Mairi Gougeon. She has without a doubt one of the biggest portfolios in the Scottish Government. Piloting all these Bills through Parliament this year would in itself demand several people’s full attention.
But there’s another problem – the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform & Islands is the only Cabinet Secretary without a supporting “junior” Minister.
Every other Cabinet portfolio – health, justice, economy, external affairs, social justice – has at least one junior Minister supporting the Cabinet Secretary. Some have several. But when it comes to the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, she is conspicuously alone in having no direct-reports.
At Scottish Land & Estates we think that’s a mistake. Of course it’s up to the First Minister how he structures his team, but it’s our job to represent rural business, and we see a resource problem at the highest level of Government.
The Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform & Islands is an extremely capable and respected politician, but nobody could do all this work alone. This is an issue of capacity. That’s why we have written to the First Minister, calling on him to give the Rural Affairs brief the same support as other briefs, and appoint a junior Minister this summer.
This blog post first appeared as a column in the print edition of the Press & Journal on 30 May 2023.
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