Current status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 13 December 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S1W-30836 and S1W-30837 by Ross Finnie on 18 November 2002, why, if the exercise of the crofting community right to buy under the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill must be in the public interest in order to be compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), there is no test of the public interest, in the sense of the phrase as applied to Article 1 of Protocol 1 of ECHR, in the bill.
Article 1 of Protocol 1 of ECHR provides that no one shall be deprived of their possessions except inter alia in the public interest. This is why an acquisition under the crofting community right to buy must be in the public interest in order to be compatible with the Convention. What constitutes the "public interest" in each particular case can only be decided on the facts of that case.