Community Engagement Obligations and draft large land holdings guidance under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2025 - Large Land holdings: 'Check if you have a large land holding' draft guidance - Scottish Government consultations

Large Land holdings: 'Check if you have a large land holding' draft guidance

If a person or an organisation owns or controls a large land holding they will need to follow new legal duties in the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2025.

When these new legal duties come into force, people and organisations will need to be able to understand if they have a large land holding.

A copy of draft guidance has been published with the consultation document.

The draft guidance is intended to help most people determine whether they may have a large land holding and cannot cover every possible scenario. Some people may need professional advice (from a lawyer or land agent) when ownership structures are complicated.

The draft guidance is based on the legal definitions set out in the 2025 Act and can be updated by regulations. We don’t intend to make updates to these definitions other than minor updates to take into account recent changes to UK Companies Law.

Once you read that guidance please answer the questions below

64. Now you have read the guidance, how confident are you that you would know how to identify a large land holding?

Extremely confident Very confident Moderately confident Slightly confident Not at all confident

Please explain your answer. In particular, we welcome any comments you have on the clarity of the guidance

65. Do you have any comments on the examples used in the guidance?

66. Are there any land ownership or control arrangements that are not currently covered in the guidance that you think should be included?

67. Do you have any comments on the definition of a large land holding in the 2025 Act?

68. Do you have any views on further guidance or support that could be helpful in relation to overlapping large land holdings?

Overlapping large land holdings Overlapping large land holdings

This is where some land is included in more than one large land holding because the owner has connections to multiple people or organisations owning nearby land, and those people are not connected to each other. For more detail see Example E in the guidance document.