George IV Bridge – celebrating 50 years

White paper on land reform in Scotland: acquired in 1999

The Scottish Executive white paper on land reform in Scotland is part of the National Library of Scotland's Official Publications collections.

It was based on a report by the Land Reform Policy Group, set up in 1997 to examine the necessary legislation to implement land reform. Following consultations on the white paper, the draft Land Reform (Scotland) Bill was published in February 2001. The Bill received Royal Assent two years later, and resulted in the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003. The Act establishes rights of access, community buy-out of land and increased crofters' rights.

Land ownership has long been a contentious issue in Scotland, with two thirds of it in private hands and with a feudal system of land tenure. It is significant that this was the first issue to be tackled by Scotland's new devolved government.

The Library receives all Scottish Parliament and Scottish Executive publications, as well as those of the other devolved bodies, and Westminster. For more information, please visit out Official Publications section.


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