Making muirburn
Section 18—Muirburn Code
97.Section 18 requires the Scottish Ministers (or if they delegate the function, Scottish Natural Heritage) to prepare and publish a code of practice on making muirburn safely and appropriately and thereafter to review it on a 5 yearly cycle. The legal purpose of the Code is to act as a set of norms to which muirburn licence holders are required to have regard as a condition of their licence (see section 15(2)(a)). Moreover, when a new licence is applied for, the extent of the applicant’s past compliance with the code will fall to be considered in deciding whether it is appropriate to grant the new licence (see section 14(1)(a)).
Section 19—Notice of muirburn activity
98.It is a condition of every muirburn licence that a person intending to make muirburn must comply with this section (see section 15(2)(b)(iii)). This section sets out the detail about to whom, and how, notice is to be given.
99.The persons to whom notice are to be given are:
the owner of the proposed muirburn site
an occupier of any land situated within 1 kilometre of the proposed muirburn site (however, there is different provision (see subsection (3)) where there are 10 or more such occupiers and, instead of giving each owner individual notice, the person intending to make muirburn may instead notify those occupiers by placing a notice in a newspaper or by such other method as the Scottish Ministers may specify).
100.Notice has to be given at least 7 days before muirburn is made and contain information such as the proposed muirburn site and approximate extent of the proposed muirburn. Notice under this section may either be given in accordance with section 26 of the IRLA 2010 (which has to do with the service of documents), by leaving it at the address of the person being notified or, where the identity of the occupier is unknown, by affixing a notice (addressed generally to “Any occupiers of the land”) to a conspicuous object such as a gate.
Section 20—Muirburn season
101.A muirburn licence only allows muirburn to be made for certain purposes during the muirburn season. Section 20 defines the muirburn season.
102.It further empowers the Scottish Ministers to modify what constitutes the muirburn season by regulations if they consider it necessary or expedient to do so in for the reasons set out in section 20(3). Any regulations changing what constitutes the muirburn season will be subject to the affirmative procedure. The affirmative procedure is defined by section 29 of the ILRA 2010. Before making any regulations to change the muirburn season, Scottish Ministers must also consult Scottish Natural Heritage and such other persons as they consider likely to be interested in or affected by the making or muirburn which includes persons involved in managing the land on which muirburn is made.
