241122Paper6Annex1DraftFinalAccounts2023-24

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Form­al Board Paper 6 Annex 1 22 Novem­ber 2024 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Draft Annu­al report and accounts ²⁰²³⁄₂₄ …an out­stand­ing nation­al park, enjoyed and val­ued by every­one, where nature and people thrive together…

AITH­ISG BHLIADH­NAIL AGUS CUN­NTAS­AN ²⁰²³⁄₂₄ …SÀR PHÀIRC NÀISEANTA, A THA A’ CÒRDADH RIS A H‑UILE DUINE AGUS AIR A BHEIL IAD UILE A’ CUR LUACH, AGUS FAR A BHEIL NÀDAR AGUS DAOINE A’ SOIRBHEACHA…

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CON­TENTS

Page 1 PER­FORM­ANCE REPORT 1.1 Key Per­son­nel and Spon­sor­ing Body 3 1.2 Chief Executive’s For­ward 5 1.3 The Park Author­ity 7 1.4 Stra­tegic Aims and Pri­or­it­ies ²⁰²³⁄₂₄ and Bey­ond 13 1.5 Key issues and Risks 16 1.6 Fin­an­cial Per­form­ance Sum­mary 17 1.7 Oper­at­ing Per­form­ance Sum­mary 25

2 ACCOUNT­AB­IL­ITY REPORT 2.1 Gov­ernance Report 48 2.1.1 Dir­ect­ors’ Report 48 2.1.2 State­ment of Nation­al Park Authority’s Respons­ib­il­it­ies 54 2.1.3 State­ment of Board’s Respons­ib­il­it­ies 55 2.1.4 State­ment of the Account­able Officer’s Respons­ib­il­it­ies 56 2.2 Gov­ernance State­ment 56 2.3 Remu­ner­a­tion Report and Key Inform­a­tion on Staff 67 2.4 Par­lia­ment­ary Account­ab­il­ity Dis­clos­ures 84 2.5 Inde­pend­ent Auditor’s Report to the Mem­bers of the Cairngorm Nation­al Park Author­ity, the Aud­it­or Gen­er­al for Scot­land and the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment 86

3 FIN­AN­CIAL STATE­MENTS 3.1 State­ment of Com­pre­hens­ive Net Expendit­ure 92 3.2 State­ment of Fin­an­cial Pos­i­tion 93 3.3 State­ment of Cash Flows 94 3.4 State­ment of Changes in Tax­pay­ers’ Equity 95 3.5 Notes to the Fin­an­cial State­ments 96

APPENDIX 1 Accounts Dir­ec­tion 118

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1 PER­FORM­ANCE REPORT

PER­FORM­ANCE OVERVIEW

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity presents this Annu­al Report and Accounts for the year from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024 in accord­ance with The Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000.

The accounts have been pre­pared on a going con­cern basis as the Board and Account­able Officer believe that future liab­il­it­ies will be met from a com­bin­a­tion of cash budget alloc­a­tion from the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment, future grants from part­ner agen­cies, and income from chargeable activities.

This over­view out­lines the pur­pose of the Author­ity and its per­form­ance dur­ing the year.

1.1 Key Per­son­nel and Spon­sor­ing Body

Spon­sor­ing body Envir­on­ment and Forestry Dir­ect­or­ate, Nat­ur­al Resources Divi­sion, Scot­tish Government

The Nation­al Park Author­ity Board is made up of nine­teen Board Mem­bers. Five mem­bers are elec­ted by the com­munity, sev­en are appoin­ted by Scot­tish Min­is­ters, and sev­en fol­low­ing nom­in­a­tions by the Loc­al Author­it­ies. The Board is led by the Con­vener and Deputy Convener.

Con­vener Sandy Brem­ner — appoin­ted 26 May 2023 (Con­vener from August 2023) Xan­der McDade, Chair Gov­ernance Com­mit­tee (Con­vener to August 2023, resigned 30 Septem­ber, 2024)

Board mem­bers Chris Beat­tie Geva Black­ett Jack­ie Brier­ton – appoin­ted 1 June 2024 Peter Cos­grove — appoin­ted 8 Septem­ber 2023 Kenny Deans

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Paul Gibb Han­nah Grist — appoin­ted 26 May 2023 Rus­sell Jones John Kirk Bill Lob­ban Lauren Mac­Cal­lum Dr Fiona McLean Elean­or Mack­in­tosh — deputy con­vener from 8 Septem­ber 2023 Duncan Miller – appoin­ted 9 Novem­ber 2023 Steve Mickle­wright – appoin­ted 26 May 2023 Anne Ross Derek Ross

Janet Hunter – deputy con­vener, resigned 7 Septem­ber 2023 Douglas McAdam – resigned 31 Octo­ber 2023 Dr Gaen­er Rodger ‑resigned 31 Octo­ber 2023

The Board agrees the over­all dir­ec­tion of the Author­ity and over­sees the work of the Chief Exec­ut­ive and Nation­al Park staff. The exec­ut­ive man­age­ment of the Author­ity is under­taken by an Exec­ut­ive team that com­prises the Chief Exec­ut­ive and three Directors.

Chief Exec­ut­ive and Account­able Officer Grant Moir

Dir­ect­ors Dav­id Camer­on — Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy Chief Exec­ut­ive Officer Mur­ray Fer­guson — Plan­ning and Place – retired 15 April 2024 Andy Ford — Nature and Cli­mate Gav­in Miles – Plan­ning and Place – appoin­ted 1 May 2024

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1.2 Chief Executive’s Forward

I have pleas­ure in present­ing the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority’s Annu­al Report and Accounts cov­er­ing its 19^th year of oper­a­tion, from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024.

Septem­ber 2023 marked the 20^th anniversary of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park – this means that I have had the priv­ilege to have been at the helm for half of its life!

The Park Author­ity has been instru­ment­al in secur­ing mil­lions of pounds for invest­ment in the Nation­al Park, for example from the Nation­al Lot­tery. The Tomin­toul and Glen­liv­et Land­scape Part­ner­ship pro­ject received £2.34 mil­lion to sup­port regen­er­a­tion pro­jects in that spe­cial area of the Nation­al Park, whilst the Badenoch Great Places Pro­ject saw £352,000 inves­ted into that area’s cul­tur­al her­it­age. This year saw the con­clu­sion of the Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject, which brought in more than £2.9 mil­lion to help con­serve this cha­ris­mat­ic bird for future generations.

In Decem­ber we found out that we had been suc­cess­ful in secur­ing Lot­tery fund­ing for the deliv­ery phase of our Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme. This five-year, £42 mil­lion pro­gramme will put the power to tackle the nature and cli­mate crisis in the hands of the people of the Nation­al Park, bene­fit­ting people’s health and well­being, devel­op­ing sus­tain­able trans­port solu­tions, and enhan­cing nature.

Some­thing I am par­tic­u­larly proud of is how our ranger ser­vices have evolved over the last 20 years. Along­side the four­teen part­ner ser­vices that we col­lab­or­ate with, the Park Author­ity has its own ded­ic­ated ranger ser­vice, includ­ing sea­son­al, train­ee and volun­teer rangers. All boost­ing the amount of ​‘boots of the ground’, deliv­er­ing for res­id­ents and vis­it­ors. The very dry spell of weath­er in June meant that the ranger teams were kept busy mon­it­or­ing for fires, as well as provid­ing advice and guid­ance to vis­it­ors. In Janu­ary we sent out a con­sulta­tion on poten­tial fire man­age­ment byelaws.

The cli­mate and nature emer­gen­cies are far more prom­in­ent in our minds than 20 years ago. We have pri­or­it­ised large-scale peat­land res­tor­a­tion (over 3,000 hec­tares since 2014) and wood­land expan­sion (over 5,000 hec­tares in the last five years), as well as river catch­ment res­tor­a­tion pro­jects, work­ing closely with land man­agers across the Nation­al Park.

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There have been areas of work that have sup­por­ted loc­al busi­nesses, par­tic­u­larly around train­ing and sup­port, work­ing closely with part­ners includ­ing the Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship and Grow­biz. There is much to do on afford­able hous­ing, but more than 200 afford­able homes have been giv­en plan­ning per­mis­sion over the last five years alone. Fur­ther­more, the Park Author­ity is the first plan­ning author­ity in the coun­try to intro­duce a min­im­um 45% afford­able hous­ing quota on devel­op­ments in the com­munit­ies that need it most.

There’s been pro­jects to con­serve and enhance all man­ner of rare and spe­cial spe­cies includ­ing aspen, wild­cats, waders, rap­tors, twin­flower, pine hov­er­fly – and the return of beavers after an absence of 400 years. The first beavers to be trans­lo­cated to the Cairngorms are set­tling into their new home after arriv­ing in the Nation­al Park in Decem­ber 2023.

None of this can be achieved by work­ing alone. We con­tin­ue to work with loc­al busi­nesses, nation­al agen­cies, private estates, loc­al com­munit­ies, and many oth­er organ­isa­tions. There is only strength in part­ner­ship working.

We have much still to do but, after 20 years, I hope that people can see and feel the massive bene­fits that being in a nation­al park – an inter­na­tion­ally recog­nised status can bring.

Grant Moir Chief Exec­ut­ive and Account­able Officer 27 Septem­ber 2024

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1.3 The Park Authority

The Cairngorms Nation­al Park is the largest Nation­al Park in the United King­dom and cov­ers 4,525 square kilo­metres, twice the size of Loch Lomond and the Trossachs and 40% lar­ger than the Lake District.

The Park Author­ity is a Non-Depart­ment­al Pub­lic Body sponsored by the Envir­on­ment and Forestry Dir­ect­or­ate, Nat­ur­al Resources Divi­sion, Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment, estab­lished under the Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000 with the pur­pose of being a mod­el of sus­tain­able devel­op­ment work­ing towards achiev­ing four stat­utory aims:

• to con­serve and enhance the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age of the area;
• to pro­mote sus­tain­able use of the nat­ur­al resources of the area;
• to pro­mote under­stand­ing and enjoy­ment (includ­ing enjoy­ment in the form of recre­ation) of the spe­cial qual­it­ies of the area by the pub­lic; and
• to pro­mote sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic and social devel­op­ment of the area’s communities.

Strategy and busi­ness mod­el The Park Author­ity has a key role in lead­ing the deliv­ery of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan (NPPP). The Plan sets the con­text for close co- oper­a­tion and part­ner­ship across pub­lic, private, and vol­un­tary organ­isa­tions in the Park, towards an agreed set of shared pri­or­ity object­ives. The Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan sets out the long-term out­comes for the Park and provides the over­all guide for stra­tegic align­ment between pub­lic agen­cies, private com­pan­ies and com­munity organ­isa­tions with­in the Park who are sig­nat­or­ies to, and part­ners in, deliv­ery of the Cairngorms NPPP.

Over the course of the last year the Park Author­ity has developed and extens­ively con­sul­ted on a new NPPP to span 2022 to 2027. This new NPPP was approved by the Park Authority’s board in June 2022 and by Scot­tish min­is­ters in August 2022.

The Park Authority’s Cor­por­ate Plan is derived from the NPPP 2022 – 27. The Cor­por­ate Plan for the peri­od 2017 – 22 was approved by the Board and Scot­tish Min­is­ters in Spring 2018. Sub­sequently, the Author­ity oper­ated against a trans­ition­al plan bridging the peri­od between the end of the 2017 – 22 NPPP and the com­mence­ment of the 2022 – 27 Plan. In the wider Scot­tish con­text, the Park

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Author­ity will also work on ensur­ing great­er stra­tegic align­ment to ensure deliv­ery of key nation­al strategies, such as cur­rent and future Pro­grammes for Gov­ern­ment and oth­er rel­ev­ant nation­al strategies.

Our stra­tegic work includes being an act­ive mem­ber of the Envir­on­ment and Eco­nomy Lead­ers’ Group, togeth­er with input to a range of nation­al lead­er­ship and stake­hold­er groups.

Our com­mit­ment Our vis­ion, mis­sion state­ment and val­ues, are led by our board and staff and are cent­ral to our pur­pose and stra­tegic con­text: Our vis­ion – an out­stand­ing Nation­al Park, enjoyed and val­ued by every­one, where nature and people thrive together.

Our mis­sion – to lead the way in deliv­er­ing for the Cairngorms Nation­al Park by bring­ing people togeth­er towards a com­mon pur­pose, enhan­cing the Park for every­one and inspir­ing new gen­er­a­tions to be Park Champions.

Our val­ues – the Park Author­ity is an open, inclus­ive, innov­at­ive, and pro­fes­sion­al organ­isa­tion that behaves with integ­rity. The Park Author­ity will also oper­ate in an envir­on­ment­ally friendly way that provides lead­er­ship in this area.

Our cul­ture — …to be the best small pub­lic body in Scotland.

We aspire to be the best small pub­lic body in Scot­land. Our staff sur­vey res­ults, under­taken every two years through ​“The Best Com­pan­ies Sur­vey”, have shown that we are a people-ori­ented organ­isa­tion per­form­ing well. We are lis­ted amongst the Top 100 Not for Profit Organ­isa­tions in the UK, and we are also recog­nised by Flex­ib­il­ity Works as one of the Top 10 employ­ers in Scot­land because of our approach to flex­ible work­ing for our staff group.

We will con­tin­ue to build on our Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment Strategy to imbed a high per­form­ance, high achiev­ing and high-qual­ity cul­ture based on an equal­it­ies and staff focused cul­ture. The Park Author­ity will con­tin­ue to be innov­at­ive and quick to act and will empower staff to deliv­er the strategies put in place by our Board.

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Aims and object­ives The Park authority’s object­ives for the year were formed around the themes of Nature & Cli­mate, People, and Place:

Nature & cli­mate Wood­land expan­sion Peat­land res­tor­a­tion Nature restoration:

• fresh­wa­ter restoration
• rap­tor conservation
• caper­cail­lie conservation
• re-intro­duc­tion of species

People Cre­ation of paths and long-dis­tance routes Pro­vi­sion of ranger ser­vices Improve­ment of vis­it­or infra­struc­ture For­mu­lat­ing approaches to act­ive travel

Place Mon­it­or­ing the Cairngorms Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan Deliv­er­ing hous­ing Con­trib­ut­ing to the devel­op­ment of the well­being eco­nomy plan Cre­ation of a sus­tain­able tour­ism action plan

In addi­tion to deliv­ery of our estab­lished object­ives, we con­tin­ue to give stra­tegic focus to our work towards a sus­tain­able nature-based, eco­nom­ic recov­ery from the impacts of COV­ID 19 in the Cairngorms, while at the same time, deliv­er­ing urgent action to address cli­mate change. Our ​‘Net Zero with Nature’ Strategy and our Green Recov­ery Strategy were approved by our Board in 2020.

Per­form­ance against these object­ives was strong. 2,800ha of new wood­land were approved and 1,340ha of peat­land were restored; extens­ive con­sulta­tion was under­taken, both with the com­munity and with the part­ners to the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan, on a range of issues includ­ing fire man­age­ment, farm­ing and land­scape-scale land and water man­age­ment; sub­stan­tial path works were car­ried out; ranger ser­vices were act­ive between April and Octo­ber; the caper­cail­lie pro­ject (fun­ded by the Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund) was brought

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towards com­ple­tion, and 18 beavers were intro­duced over 3 sites around the Park.

The scale of the Park Authority’s work­force and sphere of oper­a­tions con­tin­ues to expand. Over­all, the Park Authority’s respons­ib­il­ity for funds under man­age­ment, primar­ily made avail­able by Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment, increased from £13.4m in ²⁰²²⁄₂₃ to £14.5m in ²⁰²³⁄₂₄.

Look­ing For­ward This dynam­ic, respons­ive organ­isa­tion­al eth­os will con­tin­ue. The Park Author­ity will con­tin­ue to look at new ways to oper­ate to deliv­er our com­mit­ments in the cur­rent Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan. This will include con­tinu­ing our suc­cess in look­ing for altern­at­ive fund­ing oppor­tun­it­ies, includ­ing applic­a­tions to funds such as the Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund, and spon­sor­ship oppor­tun­it­ies. It also includes col­lab­or­at­ing with part­ners to deliv­er improved ser­vices. We con­tin­ue to strive for more effi­cient, and sus­tain­able intern­al work­ing prac­tices through deliv­er­ing against our Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment Strategy.

Our future fund­ing, from Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment and from extern­al fund­ing part­ners, has remained at a sim­il­ar level for ²⁰²³⁄₂₄, allow­ing us to con­sol­id­ate the work of pre­vi­ous years. The Sea­son­al Ranger Ser­vice will con­tin­ue for a fourth year, while we aug­ment this sup­port for vis­it­ors with cap­it­al invest­ment in vis­it­or infra­struc­ture. Over ²⁰²⁴⁄₂₅ we will fur­ther build our capa­city to deliv­er peat­land res­tor­a­tion and through this work act on cli­mate change.

In ²⁰²¹⁄₂₂ we secured approv­al from Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund (NLHF) for the Her­it­age Hori­zons Cairngorms 2030 Pro­gramme. Our imple­ment­a­tion of the Devel­op­ment Phase of this pro­gramme, along­side a wide range of part­ners, con­tin­ued through ²⁰²²⁄₂₃, and inves­ted £3.8m, inclus­ive of £1.7m of NLHF fund­ing, across more than 20 pro­jects in scop­ing, tri­al­ling, and final­ising plans for the 5‑year, £42m deliv­ery phase. Approv­al to pro­ceed with the deliv­ery phase was received in Decem­ber 2023. Pro­jects cov­er con­ser­va­tion, rur­al regen­er­a­tion, access, and sus­tain­able trans­port amongst oth­er areas of work. This pro­gramme of work is a fur­ther sig­ni­fic­ant step change in the Park Authority’s scale of operations.

Our budget for the ²⁰²³⁄₂₄ fin­an­cial year, approved by the board in March 2023, provides total funds under man­age­ment for the year ahead of £13.6m. Our next

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4‑year Cor­por­ate Plan, span­ning 2023 to 2027, was approved by the Board at its meet­ing on 24^th March 2023.

Per­form­ance mon­it­or­ing The vari­ous aspects of the Park Authority’s per­form­ance – fin­an­cial, organ­isa­tion­al, and oper­a­tion­al — are repor­ted over the course of the year to the Authority’s Board and its sub-com­mit­tees. These reports are avail­able on our website.

By the nature of the Park Authority’s role, in seek­ing to lead col­lab­or­at­ive effort to tackle the big issues for the Cairngorms, per­form­ance is rarely entirely con­trol­lable by the Park Author­ity. Rather, achieve­ment of object­ives requires effect­ive lead­er­ship and influ­en­cing, and col­lab­or­a­tion and engage­ment with our part­ners, com­bined with our dir­ect invest­ment of fin­ance and staff resources, to address our priorities.

Risk man­age­ment Risk man­age­ment and con­sid­er­a­tion of issues arising that may impact the deliv­ery of our stra­tegic cor­por­ate pri­or­it­ies are cent­ral to our man­age­ment activ­it­ies with­in the Park Author­ity. The Man­age­ment Team reviews stra­tegic risks at least quarterly, and we have developed and embed­ded risk man­age­ment prac­tices, togeth­er with pro­ject man­age­ment pro­cesses, to take full cog­nis­ance of these core aspects of effect­ive organ­isa­tion­al and stra­tegic con­trol arrangements.

The Park Author­ity has refreshed its Stra­tegic Risk Man­age­ment Strategy and asso­ci­ated Stra­tegic Risk Register, which, in tan­dem with our cor­por­ate per­form­ance and mon­it­or­ing sys­tem, details the key issues and risks around deliv­ery of our Cor­por­ate Plan togeth­er with the stra­tegic object­ives and key per­form­ance indic­at­ors set out in that plan. The Board receives detailed reports and com­ments on key issues and risks twice annu­ally, with the Board’s Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee review­ing stra­tegic risk man­age­ment between these Board meetings.

Sig­ni­fic­ant pro­jects also have their own embed­ded risk registers and risk mit­ig­a­tion plans, for example, we have estab­lished sep­ar­ate risk registers to sup­port the deliv­ery of the Cairngorms 2030 Pro­gramme. More inform­a­tion on risk and intern­al con­trols can be found in the Gov­ernance State­ment with­in this doc­u­ment and in our Risk Man­age­ment Strategy.

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The key risks faced by the Park Author­ity included:

• Fin­an­cial resources: in-year adjust­ments to fund­ing provided by Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment; dif­fi­culties in plan­ning future pro­grammes with­in the con­text of poten­tial fin­an­cial con­straints. We con­tin­ue to liaise with Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment through our spon­sor­ship team and the Peat­land Action Team, high­light­ing our achieve­ments and align­ing our deliv­ery to the aims of the Gov­ern­ment. Our cor­por­ate plan is pri­or­it­ised around anti­cip­ated Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment budget alloc­a­tions, tak­ing into account expect­a­tions of fund­ing con­straints. We con­tin­ue to sup­port part­ners such as Cairngorms Nature and the Cairngorms Trust in secur­ing inward investment.
• Human resources: increased work­load and high activ­ity gen­er­ated from con­cur­rent pro­grammes of activ­ity — cor­por­ate plan and large-scale pro­jects. Stra­tegic and oper­a­tion­al plans have been developed with extern­ally fun­ded pro­ject deliv­ery as intrins­ic ele­ments of plans to ensure deliv­ery capa­city is con­sidered fully. The import­ance of staff man­age­ment and task pri­or­it­isa­tion are rein­forced through lead­er­ship meet­ings. Per­form­ance Devel­op­ment Con­ver­sa­tions take place reg­u­larly with all staff, to check on staff work­loads and capacity.
• Tech­nic­al issues: cyber-secur­ity issues with asso­ci­ated threats of fraud and theft. We carry out daily review of the Scot­tish Cyber Coordin­a­tion Centre threat sum­mar­ies and take appro­pri­ate fol­low up action. Pro­gress towards Cyber-secur­ity plus accred­it­a­tion is underway.
• Repu­ta­tion­al issues: the good repu­ta­tion of the Author­ity as a found­a­tion for col­lab­or­a­tion with stake­hold­ers. We man­age stake­hold­er expect­a­tions through:
  • Tar­geted communications
  • Fur­ther devel­op­ment of stake­hold­er relationships.
  • Devel­op­ment / strength­en­ing of stra­tegic partnerships.
  • Ongo­ing assess­ment of oper­a­tion­al risk man­age­ment and mit­ig­a­tion in our communications.

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PER­FORM­ANCE REPORT: PER­FORM­ANCE ANALYSIS

This sec­tion provides inform­a­tion on the per­form­ance of the organ­isa­tion over the year ended 31 March 2024, our aims and pri­or­it­ies, our achieve­ments and fin­an­cial results.

1.4 Stra­tegic Aims and Pri­or­it­ies ²⁰²³⁄₂₄ and Beyond

We con­trib­ute to deliv­ery of the long-term out­comes in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2022 – 27 (NPPP) through work­ing to achieve our agreed Cor­por­ate Plan stra­tegic objectives.

Our stra­tegic aims and pri­or­it­ies are set out across the three themes of Nature and cli­mate, People, and Place. Each of these themes sets out a num­ber of pri­or­ity out­comes in line with the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan. Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Com­mu­nic­a­tions sup­port the main themes and their out­comes. The Plan was approved by Scot­tish Min­is­ters in August 2022.

Nature a car­bon neg­at­ive and biod­iversity rich Nation­al Park with bet­ter func­tion­ing, bet­ter con­nec­ted and more resi­li­ent eco­sys­tems. Outcomes:

1. Moor­land is more diverse,
2. Wood­land is expanding,
3. Peat­lands are restored,
4. Rivers are reconnected,
5. Spe­cies are recovering,
6. Farm­ing is car­bon neut­ral. People – a well­being eco­nomy that works for all the people of the Cairngorms. Outcomes:
7. Com­munit­ies are empowered,
8. Well­being comes first,
9. Green jobs are growing,
10. The Cairngorms is a Park for All,
11. Volun­teer­ing is on the rise,
12. Young people stay and thrive.

Place a place that people want to live in, work in and vis­it that works for all. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Form­al Board Paper 6 Annex 1 22 Novem­ber 2024 Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 14 of 118

Out­comes:

1. Hous­ing is more affordable,
2. Trans­port is more sustainable,
3. Com­munit­ies are connected,
4. Vis­it­or facil­it­ies are first class,
5. Cul­tur­al her­it­age is celebrated.

Sup­port themes The deliv­ery of the themes and pri­or­it­ies is sup­por­ted by the Com­mu­nic­a­tions and Cor­por­ate Ser­vices teams. Our Com­mu­nic­a­tions team works with vis­it­ors, com­munit­ies, and stake­hold­ers to raise the pro­file of the Park and cre­ate a con­nec­tion and com­mit­ment to care for it. Our Cor­por­ate Ser­vices team ensures the deliv­ery of effect­ive, effi­cient, and sus­tain­able ser­vices in addi­tion to pro­mot­ing the highest stand­ards of gov­ernance, both with­in the Park Author­ity itself and also in work­ing with com­munity and vol­un­tary organ­isa­tions involved in deliv­ery of NPPP priorities.

Cor­por­ate ser­vices The aim of the Cor­por­ate Ser­vices team is to deliv­er effect­ive, effi­cient, and sus­tain­able ser­vices, pro­mot­ing the highest stand­ards of gov­ernance to sup­port deliv­ery of the Cor­por­ate Plan and Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan by the Park Author­ity and our com­munity and char­ity part­ners. We also play an act­ive role in the Envir­on­ment and Eco­nomy Lead­ers’ Group.

Pri­or­it­ies:

• Imple­ment the Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment Strategy and embed the organ­isa­tion­al and cul­tur­al improve­ments to make the Park author­ity the best small pub­lic body in Scotland.
• Ensure that our accom­mod­a­tion and its infra­struc­ture sup­port the deliv­ery of the Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment Strategy.
• Deliv­er ongo­ing ser­vice improve­ment, includ­ing appro­pri­ate shared ser­vices devel­op­ment and oper­a­tion, to the Park Author­ity, oth­er pub­lic bod­ies and the com­munity and char­it­able organ­isa­tions we support.
• Pro­mote and sup­port the highest stand­ards of gov­ernance and man­age­ment, includ­ing equal­it­ies actions, with­in the Park Author­ity, oth­er pub­lic bod­ies and the com­munity and char­it­able organ­isa­tions we sup­port. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Form­al Board Paper 6 Annex 1 22 Novem­ber 2024 Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 15 of 118

Com­mu­nic­a­tions and engage­ment Com­mu­nic­at­ing with a wide range of stake­hold­ers – from loc­al res­id­ents to vis­it­ors, busi­nesses and land man­agers – is vital for the work of the Park Author­ity. It sup­ports the work being under­taken across the organ­isa­tion to deliv­er on the Nature and Cli­mate, People, and Place pri­or­it­ies out­lined in our Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan. Our role is to raise the pro­file of the Nation­al Park and cre­ate mean­ing­ful con­nec­tions between key audi­ences and the land­scape of the Cairngorms. We are seek­ing to build a com­munity of people who act­ively sup­port and care for the Nation­al Park and who bene­fit from doing so.

Pri­or­it­ies:

• Deliv­er the Com­mu­nic­a­tion and Engage­ment Strategy and increase aware­ness, engage­ment and involve­ment with the Nation­al Park.
• Coordin­ate engage­ment for our Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme and tell the story as it pro­gresses, help­ing stake­hold­ers see their role in tack­ling the nature and cli­mate crises.
• Ensure high qual­ity intern­al com­mu­nic­a­tions that help deliv­er the key pri­or­it­ies of the Cor­por­ate Plan.
• Cel­eb­rate a diverse range of per­spect­ives and exper­i­ences in our com­mu­nic­a­tions, help­ing the Cairngorms become a ​‘Park for All’ where every­one is wel­come. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Form­al Board Paper 6 Annex 1 22 Novem­ber 2024 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 16 of 118

1.5 Key Issues and Risks

Stra­tegic deliv­ery Deliv­ery of the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan will test the poten­tial for enhanced approaches to con­ser­va­tion and the pro­tec­tion of endangered spe­cies, includ­ing deliv­ery of out­comes on wild­life crime. Unreal­ist­ic expect­a­tions of what the Park Author­ity and its part­ners can achieve in the face of the sig­ni­fic­ant risks presen­ted by cli­mate change, spe­cies extinc­tion, flood man­age­ment and fire are being man­aged through com­mu­nic­a­tion and collaboration.

Fin­an­cial resources The Scot­tish Government’s con­tin­ued and heightened con­cerns on for­ward sta­bil­ity of cur­rent fin­an­cial alloc­a­tions presents the risk of in-year adjust­ments, and uncer­tainty over future year fund­ing levels. Con­straints on pub­lic sec­tor fin­ances may restrict our capa­city to alloc­ate suf­fi­cient resources to deliv­er the cor­por­ate plan and may also affect the avail­ab­il­ity of part­ner­ship fund­ing for shared activities.

Human resources Deliv­ery of extern­ally fun­ded pro­jects has become an intrins­ic part of our oper­a­tion­al plan­ning so that we main­tain the capa­city of the organ­isa­tion to achieve pro­ject out­comes, while work­ing in an increas­ingly com­pet­it­ive and restric­ted recruit­ment cli­mate. These pro­jects are enabling the Park Author­ity to extend its influ­ence by tak­ing on new types of work. The Author­ity is work­ing to improve the know­ledge and skills of col­leagues con­trib­ut­ing to these new activ­it­ies. Pay pres­sures are being man­aged in line with Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment policy, and in col­lab­or­a­tion with staff and unions.

Tech­nic­al issues The Author­ity recog­nises its depend­ency on inform­a­tion tech­no­logy for effect­ive and effi­cient oper­a­tions. The incid­ence of cyber­crime increases the need for invest­ment in both secur­ity meas­ures and resourcing of IT ser­vices. Busi­ness con­tinu­ity plan­ning remains a focus.

Repu­ta­tion The Park Author­ity acknow­ledges the import­ance of its rela­tion­ships with stake­hold­ers. Much of the Authority’s work is car­ried out in part­ner­ship with organ­isa­tions and com­munit­ies with­in the Park and the good repu­ta­tion of the Author­ity is a found­a­tion for this col­lab­or­a­tion. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Form­al Board Paper 6 Annex 1 22 Novem­ber 2024 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 17 of 118

1.6 Fin­an­cial Per­form­ance Summary

This sec­tion provides a sum­mary of the Park Authority’s fin­an­cial per­form­ance for the year against the Board approved budget and grant-in-aid awar­ded by the Scot­tish Government.

The Park Author­ity is expec­ted to man­age its budget in accord­ance with the Frame­work Agree­ment made with Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment, and the Scot­tish Pub­lic Fin­ance Manu­als, and to deliv­er an out­turn for the fin­an­cial year with­in Scot­tish Government’s budget lim­its. The com­ment­ary and tables below show how the budgets agreed by the Board have been applied dur­ing the year with com­par­is­ons to pre­vi­ous years’ income and expenditure.

Income The main source of our fund­ing for the year was grant-in-aid fund­ing from our spon­sor­ing body, the Envir­on­ment and Forestry Dir­ect­or­ate, Nat­ur­al Resources Divi­sion, of the Scot­tish Government.

We also acted as Account­able Body for the Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund (NLHF) sup­port­ing sig­ni­fic­ant ongo­ing pro­jects: the deliv­ery phase of the Caper­cail­lie Frame­work, and the suc­cess­ful com­ple­tion of the devel­op­ment phase of the Cairngorms 2030 Pro­ject (Her­it­age Hori­zons). We were suc­cess­ful in being awar­ded fund­ing by NLHF to con­tin­ue our work on Cairngorms 2030 into its deliv­ery phase, and work on this began in Janu­ary 2024.

The grant-in-aid set­tle­ment rep­res­ents an agreed budget with our spon­sor­ing depart­ment with an agreed level of fund­ing sup­port rep­res­ent­ing the Park Authority’s alloc­a­tions of Depart­ment­al Expendit­ure Lim­its (DEL), which cov­ers all expendit­ure net of income from all oth­er sources. DEL is fur­ther split between cash alloc­a­tions to meet oper­a­tion­al cost (resource or RDEL) and cap­it­al expendit­ure (cap­it­al or CDEL) and non-cash alloc­a­tions. The non-cash alloc­a­tion cov­ers depre­ci­ation and impair­ment of non-cur­rent assets (cap­it­al­ised tan­gible and intan­gible assets), togeth­er with right-of-use assets (rent­al prop­er­ties, leased vehicles and leased office equip­ment) car­ried in the State­ment of Fin­an­cial Pos­i­tion at the year end.

The grant-in-aid set­tle­ment for ²⁰²³⁄₂₄ was again favour­able and increased in total by £1.158m and included an uplift of £0.631m for peat­land res­tor­a­tion, and a cap­it­al increase of £0.500m. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Form­al Board Paper 6 Annex 1 22 Novem­ber 2024 Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 18 of 118

The fol­low­ing income and expendit­ure account provides a sum­mary of our actu­al fin­an­cial per­form­ance, cash, and non-cash, for the year against the final budget approved by the Board on24th March 2023.

Income and expenditure

	Out­turn £’000	Budget £’000	Vari­ance £’000
Income
Grant-in-aid Resource funding	7,658	7,658	-
Grant-in-aid Cap­it­al fund­ing general	1,100	1,100
Grant-in-aid Cap­it­al fund­ing peat­land recovery	2,736	3,636	(900)
Grant-in-aid Cap­it­al fund­ing nature recovery	300	250	50
	11,794	12,644	(850)
Oth­er gen­er­ated income*	699	182	517
Com­munity Led Loc­al Devel­op­ment (CLLD)
Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie project	365	330	35
	966		966
Cairngorms 2030 (Her­it­age Horizons)	645		645
	2,675	512	2,163
Fin­ance income (bank interest)	93		93
Total income	14,562	13,156	1,406
Expendit­ure
Staff and board costs**	5,725	5,033	692
Run­ning costs	894	945	(51)
Oper­a­tion­al plan costs	2,526	3,006	(480)
Peat­land cap­it­al spend	2,777	3,636	(859)
Com­munity Led Loc­al Devel­op­ment (CLLD)	364	300	64
Nature Recov­ery cap­it­al spend	302	250	52
Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie project	966		966
Cairngorms 2030 (Her­it­age Horizons)	645		645
Total expendit­ure	14,199	13,170	1,029
Fin­ance expendit­ure (interest on leases)	34		34
	14,233	13,170	1,063
Surplus/(deficit) on cash activities	329	(14)	343
Depre­ci­ation (non-cash)	333		333
Out­turn taken to Tax­pay­ers’ reserves	(4)	(14)	10

*includes pro­ject staff costs recovered **includes pro­ject staff costs Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority