A new European Commission (EC) directive on money laundering will help illuminate the “darkest recesses of land ownership” in Scotland.
The Scottish Government has promised a “radical” programme of land reform to change the pattern of ownership away from large estates.
Rural Affairs and Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead told MSPs that specific measures will include giving ministers the power to intervene where ownership or decisions by owners are seen as a barrier to local development, improving the right-to-buy and boosting the land fund to £10million a year.
The EC is proposing a fourth directive on money laundering that will require member states to maintain publicly available registers of beneficial ownership – where specific property rights belong to a person but the legal title belongs to another – for both corporate entities and trusts.
Rob Gibson, SNP MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, asked Mr Lochhead if the directive will help efforts to identify land owners and draw up a register.
Mr Lochhead said he certainly hoped so as the government was committed to completing a land register within 10 years, with public sector land registered in five years.
“It is fair to say that the action being taken in Europe, combined with the measures that I have just outlined that are being taken here in Scotland to improve the transparency and accountability of land ownership, will shine a light into the darkest recesses of land ownership, which will be great for the future of democratising land and how it is used and managed, and the benefits that it can deliver for Scotland in the future,” he said.