Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2016

11 Eligibility for appointment

(1) In appointing members to the Commission, the Scottish Ministers must—

(a) have regard among other things to the desirability of the Commission (taken as a whole) having expertise or experience in—

(i) land reform,

(ii) law,

(iii) finance,

(iv) economic issues,

(v) planning and development,

(vi) land management,

(vii) community empowerment,

(viii) environmental issues,

(ix) human rights,

(x) equal opportunities,

(xi) the reduction of inequalities of outcome which result from socio-economic disadvantage, and

(b) encourage equal opportunities and in particular the observance of the equal opportunity requirements.

(2) In appointing the Land Commissioners, the Scottish Ministers must take every reasonable step to ensure that at least one of the Commissioners is a speaker of the Gaelic language.

(3) In appointing the Tenant Farming Commissioner, the Scottish Ministers must ensure that the person appointed has expertise or experience in agriculture.

(4) When the Scottish Ministers refer an appointment to the Scottish Parliament for approval under section 10(2), they must lay before the Scottish Parliament a statement as to how they have complied with the duties in subsections (1) to (3).

(5) In subsection (1) “equal opportunities” and “equal opportunity requirements” have the same meanings as in Section L2 of Part 2 of schedule 5 of the Scotland Act 1998.