Community Engagement Obligations and draft large land holdings guidance under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2025
Community Engagement Obligations: Land Management Plans -cases where information might not need to be included
This section asks questions about situations where certain information may not be required in an LMP, either because it is already available somewhere else, or because disclosure could have negative impacts.
Duplication of Information
There are existing sources of information which already provide information for some landholdings that may be required by LMPs. These include:
- Long-term forest plans
- Woodland Carbon Code Project Design Documents
- Peatland Code plans
- National park partnership plans
- Deer management plans
To avoid unnecessary duplication of information, LMPs could reference suitable plans that provide the required information. This could be a hyperlink to a plan.
Other information not required in LMPs
There may be circumstances where inclusion of information in a LMP would not be appropriate, or engagement needs to be limited. This may include land relating to Critical National Infrastructure or land used for defence purposes, where disclosure of information could have implications for national security, national defence, the delivery of essential services, or the functioning of the state.
The 2025 Act notes that LMP obligations do not need to be imposed in connection to all of a ‘large landholding’, allowing for exemptions from compliance to be created. Regulations and guidance would set out these circumstances and exemptions from the obligations, where appropriate.