SNP MSP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, Alasdair Allan, successfully moved 12 amendments at Stage 2 consideration of the Crofting and Scottish Land Court Bill this morning.
The Bill aims to simplify legislation to make crofting regulation less onerous. It strengthens the role of grazing committees, and gives crofters and their communities a greater say in how the land they work on is used.
Alasdair Allan’s amendments, which he moved in the Rural Affairs Committee of the Parliament, relate to owner-occupier crofts, processes for assignations and applications, as well as Land Court applications.
One of the islands’ MSP’s amendments gives Scottish Ministers the power to regulate on the transfer of owner-occupier crofts, while another prevents a crofters’ right to buy being exercised where they are in breach of their crofting responsibilities. If all changes remain in the Bill in its final form at stage 3, criminal offences in relation to failure to uphold crofting duties will also be replaced with a more practical civil system, with the Crofting Commission will be better able to respond proportionately and effectively to non-compliance.
Commenting, Alasdair Allan said:
“This bill represents an important step forward and, with the amendments passed today in committee, will ensure that the groundwork is laid for further, essential, reform to crofting law after the election. There has been consistent engagement between crofting stakeholders, MSPs, Scottish Government and officials over the shape the changes within the bill should take to be most effective, and this dialogue needs to continue as we assess the impact of this bill in the months to come.
“Legislation –in the form of this current bill, and another bill in the future - must help safeguard crofting for the generations to come, in terms of its importance as a cultural practice as well as the integral role it plays in our islands local economy. There were several ideas put forward in committee today by others which were unfortunately beyond the scope of the current bill, but which I hope might be incorporated in future, more comprehensive legislation.
“We need to make sure that crofters are well supported, and that the Crofting Commission is able to work as efficiently as possible to ensure obligations are being upheld. It’s also important that rights relating to commons grazings continue to be protected. I look forward to work beginning on further legislation in the near future to further simplify and modernise what is at present a very complex area of law, and one that needs updated to match the needs of the crofters, and would-be crofters, of today.”
The committee will conclude Stage 2 of the Bill next week before it returns to the whole chamber at Stage 3.
