Seòmar agus comataidhean

No. However, decisions by ministers to consent to or to reject a crofting community right to buy application can be appealed in terms of section 88 of the bill to the sheriff court which is an independent and impartial tribunal for the purposes of article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. An aggrieved party would also have a right to resort to the courts using the remedy of judicial review.

Since the provisions of the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill would not enable crofting communities to buy salmon fishings that cannot be exploited from croft land there is no need to amend the bill in the manner suggested.

The purpose of section 71(2) of the bill is not to qualify the meaning of "the public interest" as used in article 1 of Protocol 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights, but to elucidate its meaning as used in the bill.

The handling of the crofting community right to buy salmon fishings in the draft bill text would not have delivered the intended policy outcome. The policy intention is that crofting community bodies should be able to apply for the right to buy salmon fishings located on or directly exercisable from the croft land which they were acquiring or had acquired through the exercise of the crofting community right to buy. It was not intended that crofting communities should be able to acquire, through the right to buy, salmon fishings on or exercisable from additional land that they might acquire or that their acquisition of salmon fishings should be subject to the additional tests found in section 74 of the bill.

The Land Reform (Scotland) Bill contains no provisions that specify circumstances in which a crofting community body may or may not dispose of land acquired through the exercise of the right to buy. Any restrictions on disposal of land will be governed, where required, by the terms and conditions of the grant or loan documentation of the crofting community body's funders, and by the crofting community body's own Memorandum and Articles of Association.

The powers of compulsory acquisition in the bill do not seek to emulate compulsory purchase legislation in every respect. It is the policy of the Scottish Executive that crofting communities should have the opportunity to buy their croft land if the acquisition of the land would be compatible with sustainable development and in the public interest. A test of necessity would not be compatible with the achievement of that objective.

Salmon fishings are not the only non-croft land to be included in the crofting community right to buy. The Land Reform (Scotland) Bill provides for the acquisition by the crofting community body of additional land that is not croft land. Salmon fishings and minerals are separate tenements of land and as a consequence may be held on a separate title from the land itself. Both of these can be acquired by the crofting community body through the crofting community right to buy along with or separately from the croft land.

This legislation does not seek to emulate compulsory purchase legislation in every respect. Section 70 provides that ministers must publicise applications and seek views from those identified as interested parties in order to consider all relevant factors before coming to a decision. However, where there are matters relating to an application that are disputed, section 78 provides that these issues will be resolved by the land court. The proceedings of the land court are normally conducted in public.

The first occasion when responses to a consultation proposed that crofters should have a right to buy salmon fishings was in responses to the paper on the crofting community right to buy circulated to members of the Crofting Consultative Panel. Four of those responses suggested this. The bill does not provide for the purchase of adjacent salmon fishings but only for the purchase of salmon fishings that are exercisable from and on croft land.

No. What I said to the committee has to be considered in the context in which it was said. The discussion was about compensation and adequacy of compensation is the essential requirement in that context. I did not say that provision of adequate compensation is the only requirement that has to be met in order to achieve compliance with the Convention. It is clear from the committee report that the committee understood that the exercise of the crofting community right to buy must also be in the public interest in order to be compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.