A New Bill - A Better Position
The latest version of the Land Reform Bill was published on Wednesday 28th November. Known as the Bill as introduced, this version is considerably better than the previous draft Land Reform Bill that was launched on February 22nd this year. Although it is better, it is not perfect and much work remains to be done by Parliament to improve the detail. A great deal of effort is also required by bodies like the MCofS to make sure that our views feed into the debate, and to ensure the eventual outcome is workable legislation fit for 21st century Scotland.

The most significant change is that the draconian measures in the draft Bill have been dropped. Landowners' rights to remove other people's access rights (old Section 9), local authority powers of closure (old Section 8) and the Exclusion and Expulsion Orders (old Sections 15 and 16) have all been deleted from the latest version.

A new version of the Scottish Outdoor Access Code (the code) is currently being re-drafted by Scottish Natural Heritage, and this is expected to be made public before Christmas. (now published - download pdf) Changes will have been made to this document since the previous draft, because it clearly needs to reflect the wording of the new version of the Bill. The final version of the code, however, will only be developed after the Bill has been passed. That is still some time away, but the process is ongoing and the MCofS will monitor the development of the code and keep mountaineers informed via this site.

An Ongoing Process Still
The new version does, however, propose that commercial and business activity should be excluded from the right. It is difficult to interpret what precisely is intended to be included within this clause. For example, a mountain guide or instructor would be seen as commercial, whereas a club probably wouldn't. But what about a Ranger-led guided walk that has a £2 charge? There are bound to be grey areas within this issue. We will post our thoughts on this clause as they develop over the next few weeks. In the meantime, the MCofS would welcome the thoughts of guides, instructors, and others that could be affected by this clause.

It is important to recognise that this is not the end of the process - just another step along the way. One of the newspaper headlines on the morning of November 29th included the words "Victory for crofters -.." Such statements only lead people to think that what was announced the day before is the final word and will be in statute by the weekend. No. That is not the case at all. There is a long way to go before any laws change, and even then there will be a new set of laws to work with, and for us to demonstrate that they are workable.

That is why the MCofS will continue to update its information on this issue and keep mountaineers informed of ongoing developments.

Parliamentary Process
The Parliamentary process over the next few months involves the Bill being considered by the Parliamentary Committees. The lead committee for this Bill is expected to be the Justice 2 Committee. Details of the Bill and the Justice 2 committee can be found on the Scottish Parliament website.

The timetable for the rest of the process is difficult to predict and it is clearly more important to get it right than to get it on time. As much as Ministers might like to see this Bill clear Parliament before the summer recess, that may be an unrealistic target. A more likely time for it to be passed is in the autumn of 2002. But that is just a prediction; the process is complex, delays can occur and this is an unusual Bill in that it contains three issues in one Bill. We haven't mentioned the Community Right to Buy and the Crofting Community Right to Buy, but they make up the other two-thirds of this Bill. Problems with those aspects of this Bill could lead to possible delays.

Grateful and Committed
The MCofS is grateful for all the support it has received in recent months. The response from recreationalists to the draft Bill written consultation was tremendous, and the collection of signatures for the Open Scotland petition another significant achievement in pressing home the message that the draft Bill was out of touch with reality and would have been unworkable.

Finally, the MCofS is committed to securing a better legislative basis for recreational access in Scotland. We have always believed that a right of access to take part in modern recreation should be enshrined in law. Many people over the years have argued the case for access rights to be properly protected, but all too often their calls were ignored, whilst the blocking of paths and use of intimidating signs went on unabated. This at last is a chance to secure a right, that we must exercise responsibly, and to turn the tide on those who have sought to keep us off the mountains.

The MCofS will be keeping mountaineers informed of the progress of this Bill via this website, on the Access News page.

The MCofS response to the draft Land Reform Bill consultation exercise is shown here.