Moves to reveal the true identity of who owns swathes of Scottish land, often hidden behind anonymous companies registered in foreign tax havens, are being taken forward with landowners’ support

There is difficulty in tracing owners, if they are hidden in a company registered in an overseas tax haven. Hundreds of thousands of acres are thought to be owned by companies based in the likes of Panama, the British Virgin Islands and Grand Cayman.

Ministers said the Land Reform Act would help ensure that the public can learn who ultimately controls their land, whether they are based in the UK or abroad. Now a consultation on how to proceed, has been launched.

Cabinet Secretary for Land Reform Roseanna Cunningham explained

“Improving transparency of land ownership in Scotland goes to the very heart of progressing land reform in Scotland. Today, we start to consult on proposals for a public register of controlling interests in land that will, when implemented, help to ensure that all the people of Scotland can benefit from one of our most vital assets. “

She said it was the next step in taking forward these regulations “but we also want to ensure that the requirements that we develop are proportionate and not unduly onerous on those who transact with land in Scotland.”

“We also want to ensure that our proposals can apply to parties from outside the United Kingdom in order to deliver the transparency about controlling interests in land owners and tenants that the Scottish Government, and indeed the whole of the Scottish Parliament, wants to see.”

A spokesperson for Community Land Scotland, which represents communities owning more than 500,000 acres of Scotland such as Eigg and Gigha said: “The full transparency of who owns Scotland’s land is one of those bits of unfinished business that needs sorted once and for all. Complex though the issues may be, the objective must be to have full disclosure of who are the controlling interests and beneficiaries of land ownership in Scotland, and that is what we and many others will be aiming for.”

Meanwhile David Johnstone, chairman of the landowners' body Scottish Land & Estates, was also supportive:

“We fully appreciate that transparency and visibility of ownership is an area where improvement is required and we led the way in publishing our Landowners’ Commitment in 2014 which urged landowners to be open and visible. Similarly, our members have been at the vanguard of the voluntary registration process in order to assist the Scottish Government achieve its target of completing the Land Register of Scotland by 2024. We will be pleased to feed in to this consultation and provide our views to the government on this extremely complex issue."