Later this month, on January 20, MSPs will consider the first amendments to the Land Reform Bill. It will be an important day of reckoning on whether future generations of Scots will have rights to know who actually owns Scotland; not just the shell companies that can be registered in some Caribbean tax haven but the people behind them.
Many urge that the Bill, criticised as weak and ineffective on the issue of transparency of ownership, should be significantly strengthened. There are good public interest reasons for doing so.
All of Scotland’s land affects all of Scotland’s people: how our country looks, whether we have land for affordable housing and whether land use and management mitigates climate change or increases our flood risks. These largely depend upon who ultimately controls the ownership.
We have the effective "right to roam" anywhere in Scotland but we have no right to know who owns the land on which we walk; except that is, if it happens to be croft land, where there would be online access to the Crofting Register revealing names. What seems good for the crofter should be good for the wealthy landlord too.
In part, our "right to roam" is justified to further “understanding natural or cultural heritage”. But can we have a full understanding of our natural or cultural heritage, so hugely influenced by Scotland’s highly concentrated land ownership pattern, without being able to understand who ultimately controls it? Also, there is the issue of how their interests impact on the land.
Our views as citizens are routinely sought on a range of issues, to help shape public policy, not least on land questions. We place high value on the scenic quality of our landscape. We want people to better understand and participate in land use issues around climate change, housing and economic development planning, food production and flood management.
But can we ever fulfil our duties as citizens unless we are allowed to fully understand why our land is used and looks the way it is? To do so requires us to be able to understand who ultimately owns and controls the land.
The Bill brings a welcome extension of the community right to buy, new pressures for engagement between land owners and communities on land issues and new ways to mediate on voluntary land ownership changes. Owners appear to have an absolute right to know about the community with whom they are dealing yet the communities do not have a corresponding right to know those who ultimately lie behind the land agents.
This is not only a question of balance; a community should surely have a right to know who is ultimately determining their offer for land or their suggestion for land-use change.
When ministers make decisions about land matters they are required to judge what is in the public interest but how is that ability to judge and our legitimate scrutiny of ministers' decisions served if we are not entitled to know about those actually affected by those decisions?
There are clear public-interest reasons for full public disclosure of who controls and benefits from ownership of our nation’s land. Those public interests outweigh rights to secrecy, as how Scotland’s land is used and managed affects us all in myriad ways, every day of our lives.
In an era of greater transparency, supported even by some of the world’s greatest business figures, it is hard to find anyone who believes continuing secrecy on who owns Scotland is warranted. Scotland’s largest private landowning organisation supports the need for greater openness and I believe ministers want to go further than presently proposed.
Scotland has a pioneering tradition in setting new standards in law, from the world’s first land register designed for its times, to elements of our contemporary land reforms. New law inevitably involves the risk of legal challenge by someone. The Government will be assessing that risk and the legal view will weigh heavily. But, to meet the needs of our times, to have the public interest served with the defendable risk that represents, full transparency of ownership needs to win.
Peter Peacock was Education Minister in the Scottish Executive between 2003 and 2007. He acts as policy director for Community Land Scotland.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel