Supporting Scotland's transition - land use and agriculture: consultation analysis report

2. Introduction

Background

In its final report and recommendations, the first Just Transition Commission (JTC) identified land use and agriculture as a key sector to be addressed as part of the mission to ensure a fair transition to net zero in Scotland. The Scottish Government accepted the JTC recommendations and in its response committed to work with stakeholders to set out a Just Transition Plan for land use and agriculture.

The Land Use and Agriculture Just Transition Plan (LAJTP) has, as its focus, the livelihoods, skills, health and wellbeing of those who live in and rely on Scotland’s land use and agricultural sector for their livelihoods and wellbeing, as well as maintaining and supporting thriving rural and island communities.

Engagement

The consultation has been built upon a period of stakeholder engagement held throughout 2023 and into 2024. This included the publication of an initial discussion document, a series of in-person community workshops across Scotland and several bespoke online and in-person events.

Analysis of the outputs from these has identified seven overarching themes: education; communication; local focus; respect and value; collaboration; innovation; and equity. These themes and insights indicate some of the most pressing issues for the people of rural Scotland at this time. They have informed the development of the LAJTP to date and provided the framework for the consultation document.

The consultation

The consultation was the next formal stage in the continuing development of the LAJTP. Through the consultation, we have sought to both introduce a Just Transition for land use and agriculture in greater detail to a wider audience, and to clarify where people think the priorities should lie during these early stages of the just transition journey.

We published the consultation paper setting out our proposed approach on 6 August 2025. The consultation closed on 5 October. It included 25 closed questions, each with an optional text box for comments, and 1 open question. The questions were not mandatory and there was no word limit set for any of the responses. You may wish to refer to the consultation paper whilst reading this analysis report as it provides additional context that is excluded from the report for conciseness.

As we learnt during our initial stakeholder engagement, a just transition means something different for each and every person depending upon their lives and aspirations. The consultation has also demonstrated this reality. This report does not aim to reflect every viewpoint expressed in the consultation responses. For conciseness, it provides a summary of common themes submitted and some key points raised.

We extend our thanks to all who took the time to respond to this consultation. The responses, and all the other insights we have collected, will be used to inform the continuing development of the final Land use and Agriculture Just Transition Plan.

Profile of responses

We received 39 written responses in total; 11 were received from individuals and 28 were received from an organisation. Two of the respondents refused permission to publish their responses. The full responses of all those organisations and individuals who gave permission to publish can be viewed on the Citizen Space website.

A number of respondents (8) chose to submit their responses separately by email, rather than directly via the online Citizen Space platform. Most used the Respondent Information Form that matched the online version, with the remaining submissions broadly following the consultation format. All of these were manually uploaded to Citizen Space by Scottish Government officials. There was no necessity to exclude or change any responses, although minor redactions were appropriate in one case.

A list of the respondents who were content to be named is provided at Annex A

Analysis and reporting

An analysis of the responses was conducted by the Land Use Strategy team, within the Agriculture and Rural Economy Directorate of Scottish Government. Internally available artificial intelligence, (MS Copilot), was used to initially structure the analysis and identify key themes. Thereafter, officials systematically reviewed the results against the responses to ensure all views were accurately represented.

Throughout the report, “respondent” is used to refer to organisations, groups and individuals. In the following sections, for each question, we have quantified the level of agreement and summarised the responses from the open text comment boxes into key themes. Text in italics are quotes from respondents.