Question reference: S6W-20828
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
- Date lodged: 23 August 2023
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Current status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 31 August 2023
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to make land ownership in Scotland more transparent, particularly where land may be held by those currently under UK sanction or by other hostile parties.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to land reform and improving transparency of those who own and control land in Scotland is at the heart of our land reform objectives. The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2016 introduced the Register of Persons Holding a Controlled Interest in Land (RCI). The policy intention of the RCI is to ensure there can no longer be categories of land owner or tenant where, intentionally or otherwise, control of decision-making is obscured.
As well as the RCI, we fully supported UK wide emergency legislation in the UK Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act, introduced following the invasion of Ukraine last year, to improve transparency of overseas entities who own land in Scotland and elsewhere in the UK through the Register of Overseas Entities (ROE).