– Scottish Parliament written question – answered at on 10 January 2003.
Question S1W-32666
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, with regard to the Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Bill and the absolute right to buy, it is making budgetary provision to cover any costs which might arise under the European Convention on Human Rights, given the comments made in the Rural Development Committee’s Stage 1 Report on the Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Bill .
The Executive is opposed to an absolute right to buy, which would undermine the aim of the Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Bill to revitalise the tenanted sector. Our potential liability for compensation to overcome the risk of legal challenge under the European Convention of Human Rights arising from the creation of such a right is difficult to predict or control accurately, but we believe it could be substantial. Current Executive spending plans make no provision to meet such costs and no provision could be made without impacting on Executive support for other programmes. There is also a possibility, which we are investigating further, that such payments would in any case be unlikely to be acceptable for state aid purposes and would fail to meet EC requirements.
For all of these reasons, we do not propose changes to our current spending plans to make budgetary provision for compensation that might be associated with the introduction of an absolute right to buy.
Yes1 person thinks so
No0 people think not
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