Current status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 24 October 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-27536 by Tom Arthur on 28 May 2024, what information it has regarding how many landowners with a voluntary wayleave in place in Scotland in each of the last five years have issued the utility company with a notice to remove, also broken down by how many notices were complied with.
Details are as follows regarding how many notices to remove have been issued by landowners with a voluntary wayleave in place in the last five years:
Year | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
Notices to remove issued | 7 | 12 | 13 | 4 | 9 |
Regarding compliance with notices to remove, it is common for landowners to withdraw their notice to remove if a voluntary agreement is made between them and the license holder. If a voluntary agreement is not possible, the Scottish Government expects license holders to follow the necessary wayleave guidance to ensure access to that land for the purposes of inspecting, maintaining, repairing, adjusting, altering, replacing or removing the electric line or equipment: Electricity - necessary wayleaves: guidance for applicants, landowners and occupiers – 2022 update - gov.scot.
Details are as follows regarding necessary wayleave applications after a notice to remove has been issued:
Year | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
Necessary wayleaves granted | 3 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 0 |