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The bill was always deemed to be a technical bill to fix some of the anomalies, such as the one on assignation to family members.

We have done a number of things that should allow us to get the outcome that you mention. The enforcement of duties is a really important one, because there will be circumstances where people—who have been wilfully inactive and not dealing with their crofts—will simply not come back. As I said earlier, a croft a week is being re-let by the Crofting Commission. That is creating a sense in the crofting communities that things are now beginning to work and function in the way that they are supposed to. That is largely down to the excellent efforts of Gary Campbell and Andrew Thin. I think that the simplification of the assignation of family crofts and the provisions on assignation to two people have gone some way towards achieving the desired outcome.

Is there more to be done? Absolutely. There will always be more to be done, but the bill as it stands will meet the objectives that people set out to achieve long before I was a minister, when they started to talk about the subject. The bill will meet those objectives and it also seeks to add one or two things that will allow us to try to restabilise the crofting community spirit.

We have taken on board the comments from stakeholders, including Mr Inkster. However, 93 per cent of respondents to the consultation supported that provision. Officials are already in discussion with the Registers of Scotland and the Crofting Commission to ensure that the legislation cannot bring about the scenario that was outlined by a solicitor in their response to the call for views.

The bill provides ministers with the flexibility to adjust the jurisdiction of the Land Court. It is clear that the new, expanded Land Court will work primarily within the context of Scottish farming and crofting. It does not have universal jurisdiction to deal with all matters relating to land. Complicated environmental cases are likely to cover a number of issues, such as cultural, social and economic. As a result, such cases, among other issues, should continue to be considered in the current courts and tribunals system.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that there is effective access to justice on environmental matters in Scotland. Since the United Kingdom left the European Union, steps have been taken to strengthen access to justice in environmental matters. Environmental Standards Scotland is an independent body that has been set up to ensure that environmental laws and standards are adhered to in Scotland. ESS replaces the European Union’s scrutiny and enforcement role.

At the time of the Scottish Government’s review of environmental governance, ESS was a new body. The Scottish Government acknowledged that time was required to allow the new arrangements to be implemented in full. In its draft strategy for 2026-31, ESS has stated that it

“will ensure that the environmental governance system works effectively”.

I hope that that gives the committee some confidence that work is going on.

At this stage, the bill is primarily engaged with farming and crofting. That is its function at the moment.

That is exactly what we are saying. One of the things that came up, particularly in the Western Isles, was the need to make the assignation process as simple as we possibly could, particularly for family members. However, that cannot result in a particular family hoovering up the entire area. This is just about the commission being able to say, “Hold on—you have three crofts. Let’s have a look at that and see whether we are in the right place,” but that does not mean that the commission would then say, “No—you can’t go any further.”

Assignation is probably the biggest aspect, as that is where the vast majority of the commission’s time has been taken up. Bill Barron has worked in the commission, so I invite him to give a brief overview of the things that would eat into the commission’s time.

I do, indeed, have an opening statement.

Good morning, and thank you for inviting me to give evidence on the Crofting and Scottish Land Court Bill. As you know, the bill has two main parts. I will begin with a short opening statement on part 1, on crofting. I will give a further short statement on the merger of the Scottish Land Court and the Lands Tribunal for Scotland later in the meeting.

The crofting provisions in the bill are the culmination of more than three years of stakeholder engagement. To date, there have been 20 crofting bill group meetings, and those will continue through the upcoming stages. The proposals that have been considered came from a variety of sources. They include issues that were previously identified by a crofting bill team between 2016 and 2019, many of which were drawn from the crofting law sump, issues that the Law Society of Scotland singled out for crofting law reform in 2019-20, and issues that were identified and raised by stakeholders over the three-year period. Over the summer of 2024, we carried out a consultation and officials ran 15 public events throughout the crofting counties, which were attended by 257 people. It is fair to say that the bill has not lacked stakeholder engagement.

It has been mentioned that the bill does not go far enough and that it does not address some of the bigger issues that exist, but the bill was never meant to deliver fundamental reform. Officials have made that point throughout the process. Crofting law is complex, and even when there is consensus that something needs to be changed, it is often difficult to reach a consensus on what the remedy should be. Developing proposals and identifying workable solutions requires time.

However, the bill is more than just a technical bill—it is also an enabling bill. It will give crofters more options for how they use their land, it will allow approximately 700 people to apply to become crofters, it will streamline the enforcement of duties in the family assignation process, and it will prevent those who are in breach of the duties from profiteering and removing land from crofting tenure. Landlords and subtenants will be able to report breaches of duty to the Crofting Commission, and crofters will be able to apply to the commission for boundary and registration changes.

Rather than being viewed in isolation, the reforms should be viewed alongside the work that is being done by the Crofting Commission. As the commission pointed out in its evidence, it is important to note the interplay between the legislation and the commission’s policy plan. The legislation provides the necessary framework and the plan provides the detail of how the commission will administer and regulate. The commission has advised that it has the legislative tools and the resources to carry out its functions, and the changes in the bill will further support the commission in its work in processing regulatory applications and tackling breaches of duty.

The bill prepares the ground for what comes next. It will help to lay a stronger, healthier foundation for crofting, whereby we aim to have increased residency levels and more people actively using their crofts and common grazings. We will then be in a better place to take stock and consider what is needed for the future.

I am happy to take questions.

That is a legitimate concern. Officials raised it at recent meetings of the bill group and the cross-party group on crofting, and we have begun discussions with stakeholders to try to resolve it. We are potentially looking to amend the bill in that regard. Michael Nugent can give you some background to the discussions that he has had on the matter.

I cannot give an answer to that one way or the other. My consideration has purely been about what the merger would deliver for crofting regulation.

Are you asking about transparency in relation to what grazings committees are doing on the land, which others do not know about?