Crofting and Scottish Land Court Bill: island communities impact assessment

7. Consultation and engagement

7.1 Crofting

In early June 2022, the Scottish Government confirmed its intention to take forward crofting law reform, and in May 2022, officials reinstated the Crofting Bill Group, which comprises a wide range of stakeholders:

• Crofting Commission
• Highlands & Islands Enterprise
• Scottish Crofting Federation
• National Farmers Union Scotland
• NatureScot
• Law Society of Scotland
• Scottish Land Court
• Scottish Land & Estates
• Registers of Scotland
• Highlands and Islands Agricultural Support Group – Shetland Islands Council
• Crofting Solicitors

There was an open invitation to Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and Crofting Commissioners to attend Bill Group meetings. Of those attending as a representative of an organisation/body, there a number who were island or mainland crofters.

The Crofting Bill Group has held 19 meetings and discussed a range of proposals for crofting law reform, ranging from technical adjustments to significant improvements to the system. Additional meetings have also taken place with key stakeholders, including the Scottish Crofting Federation, NFU Scotland, Scottish Land & Estates and the Crofting Commission.

Since June 2022, the Crofting Bill Team has attended all meetings of the Cross-Party Group on Crofting, to provide an update and discuss the Bill proposals. The Cross-Party Group is attended by MSPs, including those who have constituency interests, crofting stakeholder organisations, landlords and many crofters, including some from the islands.

During the Crofting Consultation period (June – September 2024), the Crofting Bill and Policy Team hosted 15 in-person events, throughout the crofting counties, which together were attended by 257 people, the majority of whom were crofters. Island events were held in Skye, Shetland, Tiree, Lewis, Harris, Benbecula and Barra. The consultation received 163 responses across the three-month period, of that 136 (83%) were from individuals and 27 (17%) were organisational responses.

The Lines Between was commissioned by the Scottish Government to undertake an independent impartial analysis of the responses, including the points made at the 15 consultation events. The analysis was published on 15 November 2024, and the findings presented to the Crofting Bill Group (including those members of the Crofting Stakeholder Forum), Crofting Commission Board, and at the Cross-Party Group on Crofting in December 2024. Following each presentation, questions were taken from crofters and stakeholders.

Following the consultation process, the Bill Team used the responses to the consultation and the presentations to help inform the development of the Bill proposals. During discussions with stakeholders and crofters, no evidence arose to suggest that any proposal would have an impact on an island crofter different to that of any other island crofter or mainland crofter. Throughout the consultation events, consultation responses or other stakeholder engagement, no island crofter identified any proposal that would have any impact on an island crofter, different to that of another island crofter or mainland crofter. The majority of the proposals are strongly supported, as evidenced by the consultation responses and stakeholder event discussions.

7.2 Scottish Land Court/Tribunals

The Scottish Government published a consultation paper, ‘The Future of the Land Court and the Lands Tribunal’, on 27 July 2020. The Scottish Government consulted on various issues relating to the Land Court and the Lands Tribunal. The main questions were whether the two bodies should be amalgamated; if so, whether the resultant body should be a court or a tribunal; and whether the statutory requirement that there should be a Gaelic speaking member of the Land Court should be retained. An analysis of responses was published in June 2021.

Respondents included individuals and organisations, and came from a range of interests including academics with an interest in land use or environmental matters, judicial or legal representative groups, public bodies, non-departmental public bodies, land use management representative body, farmers’ representative bodies.

No negative impacts on island communities were identified. The amalgamation of the two bodies is primarily administrative in nature, as are the provisions in respect of Upper Tribunal membership.