Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2016

2 Publication and review of land rights and responsibilities statement

(1) The Scottish Ministers must publish the first land rights and responsibilities statement and lay it before the Scottish Parliament before the end of the period of 12 months beginning with the day on which this section comes into force.

(2) Before complying with subsection (1), the Scottish Ministers must publish a draft of the statement and consult such persons as they consider appropriate.

(3) The Scottish Ministers must lay before the Scottish Parliament a report setting out—

(a) the consultation process undertaken in order to comply with subsection (2), and

(b) the ways in which views expressed during that process have been taken account of in preparing the statement (or stating that no account has been taken of such views).

(4) The Scottish Ministers must review the first statement before the end of the period of 5 years beginning with the day on which the Scottish Ministers published the statement.

(5) In carrying out the review of the statement, the Scottish Ministers must consult such persons as they consider appropriate.

(6) If, following the review under subsection (4), the Scottish Ministers consider that it is not appropriate to prepare a revised statement, they must lay before the Scottish Parliament a report setting out—

(a) the consultation process undertaken in order to comply with subsection (5), and

(b) the reasons why they consider that it is not appropriate to prepare a revised statement.

(7) If, following the review under subsection (4), the Scottish Ministers consider that it is appropriate to prepare a revised statement, they must—

(a) publish the revised statement and lay it before the Scottish Parliament, and

(b) lay before the Scottish Parliament a report setting out—

(i) the consultation process undertaken in order to comply with subsection (5), and

(ii) the reasons why they consider that it is appropriate to prepare a revised statement.

(8) The Scottish Ministers must review the statement, or revised statement, before the end of each period of 5 years beginning with the day on which they last laid before the Scottish Parliament the report under subsection (6) or, as the case may be, (7)(b).

(9) Subsections (5) to (7) apply to the review of a statement, or revised statement, under subsection (8) as they apply to the review of the first statement under subsection (4).