Chamber and committees

Kevin Stewart wants to come in with a question.

Monica, do you want to ask anything about that? I cannot remember.

Okay. I will bring in the deputy convener first.

Is there a solution—other than simply not having a land and communities commissioner? Who would become the adjudicator of good taste?

Welcome back to the meeting. We go straight to Monica Lennon for the next questions.

I see Sarah-Jane Laing looking up.

If the land and communities commissioner were appointed, as per the bill, would he or she have to have specialist skills to enable them to do lotting? You should be careful about how you answer that. You might offend lots of people who do the job that I used to do, who thought that they were experts in lotting. If the Government pushes on with the land and communities commissioner, should he or she have specialist skills?

That is an interesting point. It was an issue that was struggled with for the farm payment scheme when there were two different holdings separated by a long distance. Provided that there was commonality of machinery, the people working on the holdings and the management of the holdings, they were considered as one holding. Would there be merit in looking at that example in relation to this, or did the generality of what the deputy convener was saying capture the right way to do this?

Just before we leave this subject, I note what Sarah-Jane Laing mentioned about crofting and the implications of the measures.

I am not clever enough to work out the legislation. If somebody wanted to decroft his or her croft, that would possibly count in the same way as a sale from an estate because a statutory sum would need to be paid. Similarly, an apportionment of common grazings, which we all know is just a dot on a map to represent somebody’s share, could trigger the section in question. When it comes to crofting—and it is sad that we do not have a crofting representative on the panel, although I hope that we will have one in the future—I am not sure whether a croft transfer from one member of the family to another would trigger that section. Do you have any views on that point or any concerns that those situations might trigger that section? Should we be looking at that?

To be clear, the lotting would not sit with that person; it would go to a specialist, who would advise the Scottish Government. That is my understanding. Is that correct?