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

6. List of prescribed regulators

Background

Section 97H(5)(b) of the 2003 Act requires a Part 3A community body to make a request to all relevant regulators. The regulators listed below include bodies that are authorised to invoke legislation, regulatory rules etc., or to take action that could, or might reasonably be expected to, remedy or mitigate the harm that the use or management of the land which is the subject of the Part 3A application is causing to the environmental wellbeing of the relevant community.

Section 97H(6) gives Ministers the power to prescribe in regulations what description of person, body or office-holder is a regulator for the purposes of Part 3A of the 2003 Act.

Proposals

The Scottish Government proposes that a regulator is a person, body or office-holder having the power to carry out "regulatory functions". The term "regulatory functions" is defined in section 97H(6)(d).

The consultation included a table with examples of what may be considered to be regulators. This listed: Cairngorms National Park Authority; Civilian Aviation Authority; Food Standards Scotland; Health and Safety Executive; Historic Scotland; Local Authority - General Licensing; Local Authority - Housing; Local Authority - Planning; Local Authority - Road Traffic; Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park; Marine Scotland; Ofcom; Ofgem; Office for Nuclear Regulation; Office of Rail and Road; Scottish Environment Protection Agency; Scottish Housing Regulator; Scottish Natural Heritage; Scottish Police Authority; Scottish Water; and Transport Scotland.

Question 4: Do you agree that a regulator should be described as a person, body or office-holder that has the power to carry out regulatory functions?
Five respondents answered this question. All were in agreement with the proposal.

Question 4a: If not, please explain
There were no responses to this question.

Question 4b: Are there any persons, bodies or office-holders that you believe should be included in the definition of regulator, but are not listed above?
There were four responses to this question. One corrected the fact that Historic Scotland should now be referred to as Historic Environment Scotland.

Additional bodies that were suggested were;

• Forestry Commission Scotland
• Crofting Commission
• Scottish Enterprise
• Highlands & Islands Enterprise
• The Water Industry Commission for Scotland
• Local Authority - Environmental Health
• Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator
• Scottish Government Rural Payments and Inspections Directorate.

Question 4c: Are there any persons, bodies or office-holders that you believe should not be included in the definition of regulator?
There were three responses to this question. However, two stated that they had none. The other corrected the reference to Historic Scotland.