Current status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 19 May 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-16434 by Lorna Slater on 25 April 2023, whether any representatives of community ownership organisations were involved in the workshops referred to on alternative ownership models; who (a) organised and (b) attended the workshops; whether a record of the workshop (i) discussions and (ii) decisions will be made publicly available, and whether the workshops were arranged specifically to further the work flowing from the Memorandum of Understanding with NatureScot.
The Scottish Land Commission was asked to run two initial workshops for the project partners in order to inform partners about the policy context, expectations and guidance for community engagement and benefit and consider how these are built into the way the partners will operate. No decisions on community benefit, engagement and ownership have yet been taken as the design phase for each project will engage with relevant local community groups, including those involved locally in ownership of land, to design an approach to community benefit which works for the communities local to each project. This will explore community benefit, community engagement and options for community ownership, where an opportunity for transfer of ownership, or shared ownership, exists. Notes from the workshops can be made available on request.