Chamber and committees

We turn to questions from Monica Lennon.

I think that that is individual businesses, is it not? Individual businesses might comprise more than one holding.

Thank you, Jon. The next questions are from Monica Lennon. Over to you, Monica.

Our second item of business is an evidence-taking session on the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill. Our focus is on part 1 of the bill, and we have been joined by a panel of community land stakeholders. I am pleased to welcome Dr Josh Doble, policy manager, Community Land Scotland; Jon Hollingdale, policy adviser, Scottish Community Alliance; and Linda Gillespie, head of community ownership, Development Trusts Association Scotland. I also welcome Rhoda Grant, who will be joining us remotely.

As people might have forgotten, I always like to make a declaration at the start of these sessions. It is the same declaration that I have made previously. I declare an interest in a farming partnership in Moray, as set out in my entry in the register of members’ interests. Specifically, I declare an interest as the owner of approximately 500 acres of farmed land, of which 50 acres is woodland. I declare that I am a tenant of approximately 500 acres in Moray under a non-agricultural tenancy and that I have another farm tenancy under the Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Act 1991. I also declare that I sometimes take on annual grass lets. All the details of my entry in the register of members’ interests can be found online.

We have allocated about 90 minutes for this session. As convener, I get to ask a gentle warm-up question at the beginning. Is part 1 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill the right way to address any perceived problems?

Let us see whether they come out later down the line. My question was meant to be a short and easy starter to warm you up before I hand over to other committee members to ask questions.

The trouble is that if you all look away when you are asked who wants to go first, it falls to me to nominate somebody and I invariably pick the wrong person. However, Josh Doble has saved the day. Please do not all look away; raise your hand.

Can I quiz you on that so that I understand it? In the legislation, “community body” is defined with regard to the leasing of land. Are you saying that you also want “community” to be defined in respect of consultation, and that you do not feel that it is sufficiently defined at present? Is that what you are saying?

So you want that section of the bill to be rewritten and a definition of “community” put in. When it comes to setting out a plan, it might be very difficult in parts of Scotland where the nearest community is miles from the bit of land in question.

I am not sure that I see that, but I will reflect on what you have said.

Rhoda Grant has some questions. Rhoda, you have waited very patiently—the floor is yours.

This is going to get messy, because the next questions will come from you, Bob Doris. Please stick to the questions about threshold, because the deputy convener wants to come in and I am keen to come in, too, but you are getting the first crack at this.