Secondary legislation proposals for Part 3A of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003: the community right to buy abandoned, neglected or detrimental land as introduced by the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015

13. Provision for or in connection with enabling a Part 3A community body to apply for the cost of ballot expenses to be reimbursed.

Background

The Scottish Government considers that the following procedures should be followed when applying for reimbursement of the full cost of conducting the ballot:

• The application for reimbursement of ballot costs, in the form of a letter from the community body, must be fully vouched. If a third party or contractor has been used for any part of the ballot process, that third party contractor's original invoice and proof of full payment to the third party or contractor by the community body must be provided with the application for reimbursement of costs sent to Ministers;
• The application for reimbursement of ballot costs must be made to Scottish Ministers within 2 months following the date of transfer of the land to the community body;
• Any appeal of the ministerial decision should be made to the Lands Tribunal within 21 days of receiving that decision.

Question 11: Do you agree with these proposals?
There were six responses to this question. Three agreed and three disagreed with the proposals.

Question 11a: If not, please explain
There were three responses to this question.

Community Land Advisory Service considered that the 21 day period for the appeal was too short and that 60 days would be more realistic.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise suggested that a timescale of two months from the date of transfer of the land should be placed on the payment of compensation. It did not consider that it was appropriate that the transfer should be concluded before the application for compensation could be made.

Scottish Land & Estates considered that it should be more explicit than simply stating "the ballot process". It believed that compensation must directly relate to the ballot. It proposed that one month from the date of transfer would be more appropriate for the application to be received.