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I am not sure that it is needed, but I will ask Michael Nugent to give his thoughts.

Crofters have the right to assign their croft, but only with the consent of the commission. The legislation sets out the process that must be followed before the commission decides on the application, which includes public advertising and the opportunity for local crofters to object. When a crofter wishes to assign to a family member who might already be resident in the community, our position is that the process is disproportionate. It costs the crofter and the commission time and money, and we want to reduce the burden of crofting regulation where it makes sense to do so. That is one of the things that came out of my trip around the Western Isles, where we talked about family assignations. The resources that will be freed up by the change will then be available for the commission to deploy elsewhere. We talked earlier about reducing the burden on the commission so that it will be able to carry out more enforcement duties, for instance.

We settled on a limit of three crofts because that felt like it struck the right balance between the policy intention, which is to improve the efficiency of the service that is provided to customers, and concerns that there could be croft collecting or land banking by certain individuals.

The main reason for not going with a hectarage threshold is that we are including any interest that the crofter has in deemed crofts, which do not have a set hectarage. It is normal and accepted for some crofters to run their business on multiple crofts, and we are not opposed to that in any way, shape or form. It is also beneficial to the community if there are opportunities for new entrants to take on a single croft. All that we are saying is that, if someone has three crofts or more, their application will be subject to the current process. The local community will be given the opportunity to comment and the commission will give it reasonable consideration.

No one crofting area will be disadvantaged by the three-croft rule. We want to make family assignation as easy as possible, but, if someone has three crofts or more, it is worth having another look at that to make sure that there is fairness in the community.

The commission cannot really enforce duties on deemed crofts. The immediate concern for enforcing duties on inby crofts is that—

Absolutely. I am very conscious of the fact that that is a potential area of concern as we go forward. However, it is also a massive opportunity when we consider the sheer scale of crofting land that has the potential to help us with our environmental desires and what we are trying to do as a country.

We will definitely take a very close look at the issue. However, until we have clarity about the legal ownership, we will just have to keep an eye on it.

We recognise the importance of the landlord’s voice, and the bill continues to recognise that as well. However, there are normally only three appointed commissioners, and those appointments come round only every few years. Other skill sets might be even more important. We must retain the flexibility to make the best appointment. The bill will provide that Scottish ministers must consult the commission and have regard to the desirability and value of appointing a commissioner who can represent landlords’ interests.

The Crofting Commission—it is not the Crofters Commission any more—must consider all the regulatory applications in the drafting of its policy plan. The board has a responsibility to consider all relevant parties, including the landlords.

My understanding is that it was supposed to make technical fixes.

As you know, we have a programme for government commitment to make sure that every public owner of land, which includes the Scottish Government and anyone who has crofting land, to look at the opportunities to get new entrants in. As you well know, I am passionate about making sure that we get a vibrant new generation of young folk coming into crofting and farming. We are taking the steps to make that happen and we are starting to see the results.

We are not saying definitively that, if someone has three crofts, they cannot have any more. We are saying that, if someone has three crofts or more, the Crofting Commission would take a look at any further assignation. However, that does not mean that it would say, “No, that’s not allowed. You can’t do that.” It is about making sure that there is an appropriate spread among the people in a crofting community and that, as I said, one family or one person does not just keep gaining crofts and land banking.

Those in RPID are the people on the ground in local areas. The Crofting Commission cannot be everywhere. It has the powers of enforcement, and using local knowledge through the RPID offices is clearly beneficial. As the committee knows better than anybody, being on the ground and knowing what is happening locally is probably one of the most important things that we can do to ensure that the crofting way of life and the crofting townships are functioning in the way that they were designed to do. It is a matter of using local knowledge and resource to ensure that crofting is functioning properly.

The bill provides crofters and landowners with a legislative framework to help them to propose and take forward environmental initiatives on common grazings. We hope that that will encourage crofters and their communities to have a much greater say in how the land is used in their area. We want to avoid a situation in which crofters are unable to access the funding schemes and incentives in order to do those things.

As I understand it, the legal ownership of carbon credits is still to be fully determined through case law, so I am not sure that we are in a position to state in crofting legislation whether the carbon rights sit with the landlord or with the crofter. In the meantime, we encourage crofters and landlords to start looking at and entering into joint ventures and to develop and secure shared solutions that benefit all parties. As I said, at the moment, we still do not know the legal ownership situation for carbon credits.