The nine government agencies which regulate and promote rural Scotland were yesterday told they must work together, as the new SNP administration put on hold its plans to merge the biggest two rural quangos.
Michael Russell, the Deputy Environment Minister, met with chairs of nine quangos and government agencies in Granton-on-Spey, and set them a target of becoming a single rural and environmental service within a year.
That puts off the SNP's plans to create a single environment agency out of Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa), after warnings from the opposition that it could face problems at Holyrood in getting approval for such a change. That plan has not been abandoned, however.
Mr Russell told SNH and Sepa that they should continue a programme that has been running for 18 months to work more closely together. He drew into that the Forestry Commission Scotland, Forest Enterprise, Cairngorm National Park Authority, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority, the Deer Commission Scotland, the Crofters Commission, Scottish Executive Rural Payments & Inspections Directorate, and the Animal Health Agency.
There is an expectation that local councils will also become involved in the process.
The intention is to improve regulation by the main bodies that impact on farmers, estate owners and others who work the countryside, some of whom complain of too much duplication. The new administration at Holyrood intends these agencies across rural Scotland to share more offices so that they co-ordinate their links to rural businesses.
Mr Russell said he wants a simpler, more efficient service, operating as a single body, with a lighter touch, less red tape and a stronger focus on green issues. He wants all this without any change in legislation, with plans to be drawn up within three months and the new system operating by summer next year.
Speaking after the Speyside meeting he said: "We are all committed to improving the delivery of public services and to reduce the burden of regulation on business, including the land management sector.
"The new Scottish government is determined to ensure that lighter touch environmental governance benefits everyone who comes into contact with the rural and environmental agencies. We need to end duplication and working in isolation.
"That is particularly true at the farm gate where farmers routinely face inspections from multiple organisations.
He went on: "Bodies like SNH and Sepa and both national parks do an excellent job. As I have seen over the last few weeks, so do their hard-working staff. Significant progress has already been made, but much more can and needs to be done to deliver more efficient and effective environmental governance in Scotland."
Ross Finnie, the LibDem MSP who was Rural Development Minister for eight years, yesterday said there could be less duplication, but it would be a mistake to force together agencies that have different purposes.
"SNH looks at flora, fauna and biodiversity and that's in stark contrast to the regulatory regime of Sepa in talking about air and water pollution and soil contamination," he said. " They were established because there was a need to give due care and attention to protecting the environment. There's no evidence to suggest that that need no longer exists."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article