Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee 20 May 2025
I turn to grazing and mowing leases. I know that a number of respondents to the committee’s call for views suggested that section 1 should be clarified with respect to grazing or mowing leases. The provisions in the bill will reflect the existing law and the fact that there are currently grazing leases that fall under common law rather than agricultural legislation. Under section 1, a grazing or mowing lease of less than a year is an agricultural lease and will be excluded from the bill’s provisions. Such leases are included in schedule 1, which deals with leases that do not automatically continue. However, grazing leases exist that are not defined as agricultural under the current legislation. Those can be dealt with. If not, the common law of tacit relocation would continue to apply to them after any provisions of the bill come into force.
I will move on to telecoms infrastructure, such as wind farms and electricity substations. There are already two parallel processes for the termination of telecoms leases under the current legal framework. Currently, parties have to satisfy themselves as to whether the electronic communications code applies. If not, common law will apply. If any provisions of the bill come into force, those will apply rather than common law. Members may recall, from the committee’s work on the recent SLC bills, the idea of specific legislation applying in circumstances where there is more legislation. This is just another extremely technical example of where a specific code applies even when there is more general provision in the bill.
If we are looking at clarifying the application to heritable property, the Law Society of Scotland has suggested that it could be made clearer in the bill that it does not apply to leases of movable property. My officials are looking into this specific issue, and we will speak to the Law Society to get more information on it. I will write to the committee ahead of the stage 1 debate with information on that issue and on anything that we intend to take further.