Community Engagement Obligations and draft large land holdings guidance under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2025

The grace period will only apply for a limited period after the regulations are agreed, to allow time for all landowners with land subject to the obligations to take steps to become compliant.

There are two other situations however, where a landowner may need time (a transition period) to ensure they are compliant with the obligations:

• When the ownership of a large landholding transfers to a new owner, or
• when someone buys land that when added together with other land they (or connected persons) own, becomes part of a large landholding.

In both situations, there will be a new person responsible for complying with the obligations for that land. However, after ownership transfers, the new owners may need a period of time to comply with these obligations. The regulations and guidance will need to set out how long this period of time is.

Transition Period

The regulations could set out a transition period. The transition period would begin on the date the landowner becomes the registered owner of the land in the Land Register (known as the date of registration) and during that period the obligations could not be enforced in respect of that landholding.

This would mean that if a new landowner wanted to make changes that required a new LMP or it was around five years since the last LMP was published, it would give the new landowner time to develop and engage on a new LMP and make it publicly available.