10 signatures reached
To: MSPs
Identify land owners in Scotland
Re-insert into the Land Reform Bill an Article that: “it should be incompetent for any legal entity not registered in a member state of the EU to register title in the Land Register of Scotland”, as recommended by the Land Reform Review Group (LRRG).
Why is this important?
In Scotland the owners of at least 3.45 million acres (18% of all rural land) cannot be identified because the owners shelter behind nominees or trustees registered in offshore & foreign jurisdictions. Transparency International and David Cameron (UK Prime Minister) agree that this creates an environment in which tax is avoided and in which corruption (eg money laundering) can thrive. The clause stated above was recommended for inclusion in the Land Reform Bill by the LRRG to address this issue and this was supported by the Scottish Govt, but it was not included in the Bill published in June 2015. It seems that the wishes of Scottish landowners have been given more weight than the the interests of the country and its people.
