Land rights and responsibilities statement: consultation analysis

2. Introduction

2.1 The Land Reform (Scotland) Bill was introduced to the Scottish Parliament in June 2015. Part 1 of the Bill proposed the creation of a Land Rights and Responsibilities Statement. The Statement is a set of principles with an overarching vision intended to guide the development of public policy on the nature and character of land rights and responsibilities in Scotland.

2.2 During consideration of the Bill, amendments were made to the provisions relating to the Statement, and the Scottish Parliament was unanimous in its support for amendments to part 1 of the Bill that provided for the introduction of such a Statement. The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2016 (“the Act”) was given Royal Assent on 22nd April 2016.

2.3 The Act requires Scottish Ministers to prepare, consult on, and publish a Statement. This is intended to provide a pro-active approach to land policy and to provide the context within which to consider the ongoing development and balance of rights and responsibilities relating to land ownership, management and use, in order to realise the full public benefits of land in Scotland.

2.4 Scottish Ministers published a public consultation on the draft Statement on 16th December 2016 with views invited by 10th March 2017.

2.5 Responses to the consultation were encouraged via Citizen Space, which most respondents used.

Consultation responses

2.6 The Scottish Government received 62 responses to the consultation in time for analysis. Table 2.1 overleaf shows the distribution of responses by category of respondent. A full list of respondents is in Annex 3. The respondent category applied to each response was agreed with the Scottish Government policy team.

2.7 60% of responses were submitted by organisations; 40% were from individuals. The largest category of respondent amongst the organisations was National NGOs comprising 29% of all respondents.

Analysis of responses

2.8 The analysis of responses is presented in the following 12 chapters which follow the order of topics raised in the consultation document. The consultation posed 14 key questions, most containing both closed and open elements.

2.9 The analysis is based on the views of those who responded to the consultation and are not necessarily representative of the wider population.

Table 2.1 Distribution of responses by category of respondent

*Percentages may not add to totals exactly due to rounding.