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That is a really important point. I would not want to highlight those areas of work and make it look as though everybody is working in silos, but I appreciate that it can look that way. In a minute, I will pass over to Andy Proudfoot, who can talk a bit more about the interconnectedness of the different issues.

You touched on compulsory purchase orders, and a significant piece of work on those is being undertaken by another team; a review group has been set up to tease out issues in relation to that. It is important that that is a stand-alone piece of work, but I note that it is being undertaken with a view to working across Government departments where there is crossover and where it will have an impact. We have a strong interest in that.

The community right to buy review is on-going at the moment. That right is available in urban areas just as it is in rural areas in Scotland. That piece of work is being taken forward separately from the bill because of the complexities that are involved. The bill will not change community right to buy, but the notification provisions will add another gateway in. That will not necessarily impact urban communities.

I return to the fact that we have based the bill on what were seen to be and considered to be the key issues where there was evidence of potential harm to communities because of the concentration of land ownership in Scotland. We are introducing measures in the bill to address what were seen to be the key issues at the time of the initial report from the Land Commission, but we need to have evidence to back up any proposals that we introduce. As I said earlier, the Land Commission said in its report that there was not necessarily the evidence to implement recommendations in relation to land reform in urban areas, but that that would be a consideration for future work. We always have to be careful that anything that we do does not have unintended consequences, and land reform issues in an urban environment can be quite different from those in rural Scotland.

I will hand over to Andy Proudfoot, who can say a bit more about the other work that is happening.

Thank you for inviting me to give evidence to the committee. I really appreciate the work that the committee has undertaken on the bill. I know that the process has been long, starting in March last year, and I am grateful for the committee’s scrutiny of the proposals.

Scotland has had a proud history of land reform since devolution, and I believe that the bill represents the next step forward in Scotland’s land reform journey, as it sets out ambitious proposals to change for the better how land is managed in our rural and island communities. At its heart, land reform is about addressing an imbalance that has long existed in Scotland of power and control over land. That imbalance, created by concentrated land ownership, has been highlighted in research by the Scottish Land Commission, and the bill ultimately stems from that research, the commission’s subsequent recommendations and the consultation and engagement that we undertook to gather views on the proposals.

Part 1 of the bill takes steps to better ensure that landholdings that are in scope are transferred and used in ways that meet the national interest and take account of local need. The proposals in part 1 also seek to build on and complement existing legislation and build on those reforms.

The new proposals will place legal responsibilities on the owners of the largest landholdings to engage with local communities. Those owners will also be required to set out how they use their land and how that use contributes to key public policy priorities such as addressing climate change and protecting and restoring nature. The bill will give ministers the powers to ensure that, for the first time in Scotland, the public interest is considered when more than 1,000 hectares is being sold. We want to empower communities with more opportunities to own land, and the pre-notification provisions will introduce advance notice of certain sales of large landholdings.

Under part 2, tenant farmers and smallholders will have more opportunities to improve the land that they work, to become more productive and to be rewarded for their investment of time and resources.

I know that we are focused on the bill and its passage through the Parliament, but it is important to continue the longer-term discussion on land reform and to ensure that land supports communities and helps them to thrive. I want to ensure that the bill is as clear and robust as possible, and I welcome the further advice from the Scottish Land Commission, which seeks to simplify and strengthen the provisions in the bill.

I have paid close attention to the views of stakeholders and witnesses and I look forward to discussing with the committee the issues that they have raised. I also look forward to the committee’s recommendations on the bill. We will consider those carefully as we continue to work with stakeholders while the bill proceeds through Parliament.

First, I have listened carefully to the evidence that the committee has received and I know the questions that you have put to the witnesses, convener, but I think that the responses were more nuanced than that. Some of the provisions that the bill introduces are important. We are, for the first time, making important changes in regulating the land market, improving transparency and giving communities more opportunities to buy land.

You have encapsulated the bill’s aims, which saves me from having to repeat them. Is any piece of legislation perfect when we introduce it? We hope that it is, but that is what the scrutiny of the evidence that the committee has heard shows. We are listening carefully to that to see where proposals can be made clearer, strengthened or made more robust. We are listening carefully and keenly anticipate the publication of the committee’s report.

As I said in my opening comments, the bill will allow us to take a big step forward with land reform, but we want to make sure that it is in as strong a position as possible.

I do not think that it will be a case of radically redrafting the bill. For example, not all of the Scottish Land Commission’s recommendations necessarily relate to changes being needed to primary legislation; some are things that can be done through secondary legislation, guidance and regulation, and there are other issues that will not require radical redrafting. As with any piece of legislation that is introduced, we want to ensure that it is in as strong a position as possible, that we listen to the evidence and that we can adapt it as necessary.

As I set out in my opening statement, the proposals stem from the work and recommendations of the Scottish Land Commission and the report that it published in 2019. As for your points about urban areas, I know from my meetings with stakeholders that there is a concern that such areas have not been covered in the bill. However, the Scottish Land Commission’s initial recommendations focused largely on land reform in rural areas, because that was where it was felt that the most pressing issues were in relation to the scale and concentration of land ownership and the resultant impact on those communities. The commission’s report also outlined that, at the time, it did not have the evidence to be able to consider proposals for the urban environment, but that it would be looking to do further work on the matter in the future.

It is important to point out that we are not going to fix all the issues in either rural or urban Scotland in this one piece of legislation, and to remember that other pieces of work are on-going that will have an impact on urban areas. One key piece of work that we are undertaking at the moment is the review of the community right to buy, and work is being carried out on community purchase orders as well as compulsory sales orders. Moreover, there is legislation planned for community wealth building as well as other measures and bills that are coming forward. It is important to remember all of those things in the round, as they will all have an impact across urban and rural Scotland. However, our focus is on rural Scotland, because the bill stems from the recommendations in the initial report.

I would have to look at that further. The proposals in the bill are quite complex and detailed. As you can see from the number of evidence sessions that the committee has held, there is a lot to get to grips with. I do not think that the two are necessarily mutually exclusive. I do not think that it is the case that, if this bill goes ahead, we will not be able to further develop crofting or deal with the issues that exist; however, I think that the appropriate place to deal with those issues is in any crofting bill that comes forward, rather than by amalgamating those issues into this bill.

I recognise the concerns and the quite universal call for some sort of de minimis provision in the bill to exclude certain transactions that need not be controversial.

It might be helpful if I briefly explain why we have introduced the provision as we have, and the rationale behind that. With regard to pieces of land that communities might be interested in taking ownership of, the vast majority—I think that the figure is between 60 and 70 per cent—are areas of less than a hectare. They are quite small pieces of land, but they might still be very significant to a particular community. That is why we did not want to prevent from being part of those transactions areas of land that could be significant to or of interest to a community.

We have, however, listened to the evidence that the committee has heard and the subsequent recommendations that have come from the Land Commission on that issue, and we are happy to consider that further.

For me, it is about ensuring that we strike a balance. We do not want to block out transactions and transfers of areas of land that could be important for communities, so how that might work in practice and how we ensure that we achieve that balance are part of our consideration of the recommendations.

The public interest test as proposed in the bill is about community sustainability. The key question is whether lotting of the land would lead to an increase in land supply, which would have a positive impact on community sustainability. That is the key question that we are looking at, and it would be considered as part of the lotting process. That is how the public interest will be taken into consideration.

I believe that the way that the power has been drafted would not necessarily prevent that from happening. That is why we are considering the matter further.