Seòmar agus comataidhean

The conversation about new crofts is tantalising. The committee recently held a meeting in Perthshire, where there was a lot of interest in forest crofts, and Forestry and Land Scotland is doing some work that is particularly exciting for young people.

Andrew Thin, you mentioned national parks. Would any reform of the powers or functions of the national parks be required in order to deliver more crofts within the park areas? We have only two current national parks, but a third one may be on the way.

We keep going back to your previous roles.

You have mentioned lotting a number of times. Before we leave that subject, does anyone want to reflect more on what is currently in the bill? We have heard a lot of comments from stakeholders about the lotting process. Do you want to comment on lotting?

Okay. I presume that Andrew Thin and Gary Campbell are not going to comment on that. I see that they are not.

Is there a time horizon, rather than a date, by which you expect to be in compliance with that important international treaty on the environment?

If there is a date for that, it would be useful for this committee and the compliance committee to know what it is.

Right. What about the outcome of that?

Okay—I think that we have done that question. Great.

I want to return to an issue that we talked about a lot in the predecessor committee when the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Bill was going through Parliament: that is ESS’s role in relation to individual cases. There is a slight difference in the way that that has landed. The Office for Environmental Protection in England has the ability to investigate individual cases, but we still do not have that in ESS’s role. You advised ESS

“that it should give further consideration to the conditions where it would be appropriate to investigate the individual circumstances of a local area”.

It sounds to me as though you are giving ESS, even within the context of the 2021 act as it stands, a bit of a nudge towards something.

Have you anything more to say about how you define that? It is an area that NGOs and communities are interested in. Part of the context is that not everybody will have an environmental issue that is replicable in other areas of Scotland. One of ESS’s first cases was to look at acoustic deterrent devices at fish farms. That was an issue from around the coast of Scotland in which various communities were concerned. However, I guess that not every community will have an issue that is replicable—it might have more of a stand-alone individual case.

I am trying to read into that comment from the Government what you would like ESS to explore and where we might end up after that strategic review.

Does that mean that there are four or five dates?

I will go back to the bill’s provisions on land management plans. How will that play out in a crofting estate—whether it is community owned or owned by an individual or a family? Can you point to good examples where land management plans are in effect already being developed or consulted on with wider crofting townships and others? Is there potential for change to reflect good practice through such plans?