Land Reform (Scotland) Bill

The consultation aired quite a few things that don’t appear in this Bill. There’s not much about a beefed up land rights and responsibilities statement, for example: the only reference to the LRRS is in relation to using it to inform any regulations made in relation to the community-engagement obligations of the owner of a large land holding. There’s not much on cross-compliance. There is nothing about recipients of Scottish Government land-based subsidies needing to be registered and liable to pay tax in the UK or EU. There is nothing about tax, albeit that might not be a surprise given fiscal matters were basically just tagged onto the earlier consultation. Now, it may be the case that certain matters will be picked up in a future Agriculture and Rural Communities Bill (which is alluded to in the recent SPICe Spotlight), so I won’t labour this point too much. Again, we must wait and see, although we can at least acknowledge the recent endorsement of the general principles of the Agriculture & Rural Communities (Scotland) Bill by the Scottish Parliament’s Rural Affairs & Islands Committee. and point to sections 7 and 13 of that Bill in terms of compliance with guidance and/or conditions.