Chamber and committees

Could that arguably be said to create a simpler situation in that it would appear that we are now dealing with preventing something from happening in the future rather than stopping something that is currently under way?

I appreciate your description, but I would add, just for the record, that it is possible for people to learn languages, including Gaelic.

Since it was reconvened, this Parliament has delivered radical and ambitious land reform, providing a challenge to the highly concentrated pattern of land ownership across huge areas of Scotland that a number of members have mentioned.

The final version of the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill that we have in front of us this evening is the product of, among many other things, a parliamentary marathon of amendments over the past week or two. I know that there are people in the gallery—at least one of them is a constituent of mine—who have loyally followed the bill’s progress evening after evening and long into the night. That indicates the desire to see the bill passed. In fact, many people have been in touch with me urging the Parliament to pass the bill. That is because the bill represents a vital step forward in allowing communities across Scotland to have a greater say over what happens to the land on which they live.

The land is an important part of who we are, and I am proud of our long-standing commitment to delivering meaningful land reform and diversifying land ownership in the public interest. However, as others have rightly pointed out, the concentration of land ownership can be seen to have worsened in recent years, with 421 landowners owning 50 per cent of private rural land. That number is down from 440 in 2012. That is despite significant progress in the number of communities that have been supported through the Scottish land fund in achieving their buyouts, in both rural and urban areas, since then. We should be proud of that progress. That said, we must do more to achieve our land reform objectives. We must close loopholes and make it easier for communities to successfully acquire land for the common good.

During our deliberations in Parliament, some members have argued that the bill does not go far enough, while Mr Mountain has, with a very thorough efficiency, sought to oppose every part of the bill for going too far. I consider the bill to be a helpful and pragmatic measure, although I am sure that we will return to the topic in future.

Among many other measures, the bill will introduce lotting provisions, which will allow communities to buy smaller portions of land on an estate’s sale. Prior notifications of land sales for communities will also be implemented through the legislation. That is important because it will prevent situations in which communities have land sold from underneath them without even being told about it. The requirement for land management plans will require greater transparency and engagement and proactive use of land assets in line with national objectives.

As of 2023, 72 per cent of community-owned land in Scotland was located in the Western Isles. In my constituency, more than 75 per cent of people live on land that is community owned. That fact is not unconnected to the role that the islands have played in the long fight across Scotland for land rights. The crofters war of the late 19th century, in response to the Highland clearances, secured the Crofters Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886, while later land raids led to the Land Settlement (Scotland) Act 1919.

Looking forward, it is important to use the legislative levers that are available to us to deal with the problems of the future. I am thinking of the need to prevent asset management companies—the names Gresham House and Oxygen Conservation spring unbidden to mind—from any aggressive acquisition of huge swathes of our hillsides. The on-going challenge for us all will be to ensure that local communities remain able to make productive and positive use of the land around them for the benefit of everyone living in their area. The bill will enable exactly that.

The bill represents an important step forward in Scotland’s progress on land reform and will empower communities to give themselves a future. I urge members to vote to pass the bill at decision time this evening.

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I will be less specific and just say that, although I attempted to vote no, I do not think that that was recorded.

Good morning, Sir Mark. While the activity that you have just described is under way, the HES has other, important work. In your opening statement you alluded to the importance of your organisation’s work to communities up and down the country. While that change of culture is taking place, I am interested to know what is being done to build community confidence in the work that you do. I should say that you have made some progress on this, but I am thinking specifically about the 5 per cent of sites that are still closed, with only partial access to many others. How is the organisation balancing the period of reflection that you have described with the work of reopening sites?

Is there a plan now in place? I appreciate that you cannot have every site open all the time for reasons of conservation work and all sorts of things, but is there a plan now in place that you have confidence will be enacted to ensure that something closer to 100 per cent of sites are open?

We should recognise at the outset that the bill before us today is the product of extensive and patient engagement by the cabinet secretary and her bill team, as well as work by the committee and its clerks.

The bill will support the on-going work of the Scottish Government and many other stakeholders across Scotland in tackling the twin crises of climate change and nature loss, which are issues that I am acutely aware of, as the nature champion for the great yellow bumblebee, and for many other reasons. Provisions in the bill aim to support the work that is already being undertaken by land managers, farmers, crofters, nature agencies, charities and the other stewards of our land to restore and protect the natural environment on which everyone in Scotland depends.

Other members have spoken, and will speak, about the first three parts of the bill, which cover targets for improving biodiversity, the environmental impact assessment legislation and the habitat regulations, and national parks. The provisions on those matters are all very positive measures, but I intend to concentrate my remarks on part 4 of the bill.

Part 4 is of particular interest to many of my constituents, as it relates to deer management. It includes provisions for controlling deer populations and addressing deer-related damage, along with measures to prevent harm and to enforce existing regulations. Specifically, the bill allows NatureScot to intervene in situations in which insufficient deer management is impeding projects or natural processes that serve to improve or restore the natural environment.

Another change to deer legislation is the removal of the need for a licence to deal in venison to stimulate the small-scale local venison market and make local venison more affordable and accessible. Scotland should certainly be promoting the wider sale of venison, given its quality and availability.

Excessive deer numbers often represent a significant threat to the livelihoods of tenant farmers and crofters through damage to crops, grazings, woodlands and habitats. Deer can also host ticks, which can carry a range of diseases that can infect humans and livestock.

Between them, tenant farmers and crofters manage about 35 per cent of Scotland’s agricultural land, including common grazings. Crofters and tenant farmers often live and work in areas of concentrated land ownership and, in some cases, have landlords with sporting interests. There can be tension between estates that want to keep shooting rights and tenants who have to deal with the damage that deer can cause if they are not controlled. I suspect that that will be a live issue as the bill progresses through the Parliament.

Under current legislation, occupiers of land, including tenant farmers and tenant crofters, have the right to cull deer only on improved land where deer damage occurs—not on unimproved land such as moorland, sea cliffs and hill grazings, which is the primary natural habitat for deer. In its final report, the deer working group therefore recommended that the Deer (Scotland) Act 1996 should be amended so that the statutory rights of occupiers to prevent damage by wild deer apply to any type of land.

Although I suspect that we will return to discuss that specific issue, I believe that the bill is a positive step for Scotland’s biodiversity, environment and rural communities, and I commend all sections of the bill to the Parliament.

Although it is welcome that house fires have decreased by 20 per cent over the past 10 years, we have witnessed an emergence of new threats, such as the rise in wildfires. Can the minister say something about the importance of the fire service’s ability to adapt to those new risks?

It would be interesting to kick off a wider conversation about enforcement, given that it has been touched on already and has also been a continual theme in our visits.

What will the bill as drafted do to promote good enforcement of crofter duties? Some aspects have been mentioned already. We could pick out what will happen when duties are breached, or we could talk about the issues when people do not meet the residence requirements or other requirements. I am interested in focusing on how people feel the bill will address some of those issues.

I will pick up on your earlier point about reporting. I completely appreciate and agree with your point about the difficulties that are involved with that, but the bill goes some way towards taking away some of the pressure that was placed on the grazings committees in the previous legislation, 15 years ago. It does that, does it not?