Holyrood’s Rural Affairs & Islands Committee has today launched a call for views
to ask people with knowledge of the crofting sector what they think about proposals
set out in the Crofting and Scotland Land Court Bill.
The Scottish Government has committed to simplifying crofting law. This first phase
of legislation seeks to “correct known anomalies” in the current legislation. The
Scottish Government also acknowledges that a future conversation to consider more
fundamental changes may be needed.
This phase 1 Bill would aim to:
- help more people become crofters and better support existing crofters and their activities
and businesses;
- enable more and different activity to be undertaken on common grazings, including
peatland restoration and other environmental initiatives;
- empower the Crofting Commission to tackle breaches of duty through streamlined processes,
and;
- resolve crofting regulatory issues more quickly through new and revised powers for
Crofting Commission.
- The Bill would also merge the Scottish Land Court and Lands Tribunal for Scotland.
Launching the call for views, Committee Convener, Finlay Carson MSP, said: “The Scottish
Government is clear that, although more fundamental reform of crofting legislation
may be required in the future, this more tightly focused Bill would “correct known
anomalies” in crofting legislation.
“Our inquiry will look at these proposed corrections and we’re asking for your views
on whether they will address some of the current difficulties in crofting law. “Will
the proposals solve the problems they seek to address? What other changes are needed
that are not included? And will merging the Scottish Land Court and Lands Tribunal
for Scotland effect positive and necessary change?”
The Committee intends to take formal evidence on the Bill at Holyrood from September
to November with a report to Parliament expected by the end of the year.
Members also hope to visit a crofting community as part of their scrutiny, to speak
with crofters about how the Bill’s proposals would impact crofting communities.
The call for views will be open until Friday 5 September 2025 and can be accessed
here.
Holyrood Committee seeks views on proposed new crofting legislation
13 June 2025