Chamber and committees

My understanding is that Norwegian production of gas is lower carbon than our own production of gas, because they have a restriction on venting and flaring. Is that your understanding of the situation? If it is, do the adjustments to the ETS and the overall regime for venting bring us into closer alignment with Norwegian practice and therefore make us more comparable in terms of emissions?

The context is that the bill seeks to establish land management plans and to require reporting above a certain threshold. We will come on to questions about where that kicks in. You say that small but more intensive farms might have a higher carbon output per hectare, so where do you draw the line? They probably would not be captured by the bill.

Gemma Cooper, do you have any comment?

So your members would not have a problem if that guidance was reflected in the guidance for land management plans because it would reinforce what they already do as good practice.

I appreciate that the witnesses are here to represent their members and that their members have significant private property interests, but the bill is seeking to balance those interests with the wider public interest.

We have heard evidence that suggests that there is much more stringent regulation of land and land ownership across Europe and that Scotland is somewhat of an anomaly in that regard, with much less stringent regulation. The fact that those countries have managed to put into their domestic law regulations that have not been successfully legally challenged on the basis of private property rights suggests to me that they are not impacting on those rights.

I am interested in your views on whether the proposals in the bill, including those that we have just discussed, could interfere with private property rights. If so, why would that be the case here when it is clearly not the case in the vast majority of European countries, which have more stringent regulations that remain unchallenged and in operation on the statute books?

So you are suggesting that the application of private property rights is very different in Scotland because of the scale of private property ownership—it is weighted towards the scale of ownership. That is not my understanding of it. Property rights are property rights, regardless of where you are. That is certainly the case in the European Union and in this country.

Presumably, you work with other bodies across Europe that represent landowners.

Do you have evidence of how the courts have seen private property rights as having been diminished as a result of regulation across Europe? That would be of interest, because the evidence that we have is that Scotland is an anomaly because it is the least regulated.

Gemma, do you want to come in on this?

So there are no other farming unions across Europe that have successfully challenged regulation on the basis of private property rights?

I was just drawing on your comments at the beginning of the session, when you seemed to imply that you were leaning towards larger landowners, but maybe not.