The Rural Support (Improvement) (Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) (No. 2) Regulations 2025

Overview

The Rural Affairs and Islands Committee is scrutinising the draft Rural Support (Improvement) (Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) (No. 2) Regulations 2025.

The draft regulations were laid on 10 October 2025.

The Committee agreed to issue a short call for views before formally considering the instrument on 26 November 2025.

Purpose of the regulations

The regulations would make changes to the Ecological Focus Area (EFA) requirements and the Scottish Suckler Beef Support (SSBS) Scheme.

An EFA is an area of land where agricultural practices are carried out that are beneficial for the climate and the environment.

The SSBS Scheme provides financial support to specialist beef producers in Scotland to sustain the commercial beef industry and its environmental benefit.

In terms of the Ecological Focus Area requirements, the regulations would—

• increase the number of businesses needing to undertake EFA management practices by removing certain exemptions to the requirements. Currently, there are exemptions for businesses where:
   
  • more than 75% of the arable land is producing grass, fallow land or used for cultivating legumes (for example beans and peas), or
     
  • more than 75% of the area claimed under the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) is permanent grassland or used for producing grass or cultivating crops under water.
• increase the area of land managed as EFA from 5% in 2026 to 7% from 2027;
   
• change the mapping requirement so that maps need to be produced and kept but do not need to be submitted alongside the Single Application Form;
   
• change the EFA options – increasing field margin requirement from 1m to 3m, adding permitted species to EFA requirements and adding four new management options;
   
• remove the need for a fertiliser and lime plan (permanent grassland); and
   
• make changes to the conditions for EFAs, for example, changing the dates by which green cover must be sown, removing the restriction on harvesting areas under green cover or catch crops before 31 December, and adding additional crop species to the list of green cover and nitrogen-fixing crops.

In terms of the SSBS Scheme, the regulations would—

• give smaller businesses (i.e. those claiming ten or fewer calves per year) claiming support under the SSBS Scheme a derogation from the calving interval conditionality requirement. This requirement was introduced by the Rural Support (Improvement) (Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2024 and has been in force for all businesses since 1 January 2025. However, this derogation for smaller businesses will come into force on 1 January 2026 for the 2026 scheme year and thereafter apply to subsequent scheme years.
   
• extend the end of the SSBS Scheme application submission period to 14 January following the end of the relevant calendar year.

Further information is set out on the Scottish Government’s agricultural reform route map webpage.

Read the Agricultural Reform Route Map

How to contribute 

Please answer the call for views by completing the submission form below.

We welcome written views in English, Gaelic, Scots or any other language.  

You can also give your views to the Committee in a BSL video. If you send a video, we will arrange for a translation and pay for this. You can send a video through a file transfer service such as WeTransfer, or upload to YouTube and share it as a private link with us by email. 

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Making a submission

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Please note that, in most cases, your submission will be published on the Scottish Parliament's website and may be quoted in the Committee's report or in committee meetings (which are public and broadcast).  You should contact the Committee in advance of making a submission if you don’t want it published.

The call for views closes on 14 November 2025.