SNP MSP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, Alasdair Allan, has welcomed the passing the Crofting and Scottish Land Court Bill, following its final vote in in the Scottish Parliament late this afternoon. This is one of the final pieces of legislation to be voted through in the current parliamentary session.

The Bill is designed to simplify legislation to make crofting regulation less onerous, as well as strengthen the role of grazing committees sharing common land and give crofters a greater say in how the land they work on is used.

Commenting, Alasdair Allan said:

“140 years of successive crofting acts have created a complex legal framework that is not currently serving crofting particularly efficiently. So, this bill is a welcome move to simplify some of that picture. I very much hope to see further and more comprehensive legislation soon.

“I would like to thank all the crofters who engaged with the policy making process, from responding to consultations to those who were able to meet directly with the Minister for Agriculture  when he was in the Western Isles last year. I would like to pay thanks in particular to the Scottish Crofting Federation for their efforts in highlighting areas requiring amendments to strengthen the bill, as introduced, and for their direct engagement with me on this.

“I was pleased to have been able to secure a significant number of my own amendments to this bill at Stage 2. These make improvements, such as giving Ministers the power to regulate the transfer of  owner-occupier crofts; preventing a right-to-buy where a crofter is in breach of their duties; the explicit inclusion of ‘enforcement of duties’ in the Crofting Commission’s responsibilities; and introducing a more practical and proportional civil rather than criminal penalty when there is a failure to uphold certain duties.

“Last week, I was then able to bring forward additional amendments at Stage 3, which relate to grazings shares, and giving the Crofting Commission rather than landowners, the final say, on applications for environmental or forestry use of common grazings.

“It felt very fitting that my final speech in this session of Parliament was about a subject as important to my constituency as crofting. I’m very glad we have managed to get this important legislation over the line before Parliament’s dissolution ahead of the election campaign.”