Establishment
Section 4 – The Scottish Land Commission
11.This section establishes the Scottish Land Commission as a body corporate with its own legal personality (subsection (1)). The Scottish Land Commission’s Gaelic name (Coimisean Fearainn na h-Alba) has equal legal status. The Commission will consist of a total of six members, comprising five Land Commissioners and the Tenant Farming Commissioner. The Commission will provide staff to support the Land Commissioners and the Tenant Farming Commissioner by virtue of section 6(a).
12.Subsection (5) contains a delegated power to allow the Scottish Ministers to make regulations changing the number of Land Commissioners in the future.
Section 5 – Status
13.This section provides that the Commission is not a servant or agent of the Crown, that it does not enjoy any status, immunity or privilege of the Crown, and that its property neither belongs to the Crown nor is held on behalf of the Crown. Subsection (4) sets out that its members and staff are not servants or agents of the Crown, that they have no status, immunity of privilege of the Crown and that the staff of the Commission are not to be regarded as civil servants.