The Natural Environment Scotland Act brings in a few new pieces of legislation related to National Parks. Having worked on the Bill, Nikki Sinclair takes us through the new legislation and what it may mean for our National Parks and the potential for new National Parks.
In January we celebrated when the Scottish Parliament passed the Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill – new legislation which mainly focuses on strengthening the policy framework for nature’s recovery in Scotland. Stage 3 of the Bill’s progress through the Parliament involved lengthy sessions discussing amendments and concluded on Thursday 29 January with a final debate and the Bill being passed with majority support.
Most of the measures in the Bill are likely to have a degree of impact within National Parks. However, the main focus of APRS and SCNP’s (our long-time partner in the Scottish National Parks strategy project) joint work on the Bill has been to seek to strengthen and improve Part 3 of it, which specifically modifies legislation around National Parks – mainly via changes to the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000.
The main parts of the Act (Parts 1 and 4) will bring forward:
- a mandatory requirement for the Scottish government to set legally binding targets for nature restoration (akin to climate targets) which should put Scotland on a firmer, more accountable path to halt biodiversity loss and restore nature; and
- changes to deer management including increased powers for NatureScot to intervene in deer management for nature restoration.
In addition, amendments agreed to the Bill at Stage 3 brought in a range of other measures including:
- a strengthening of the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 to better manage our seas in the face of climate change;
- a requirement to give Ramsar sites the same level of legal protection as SACs and SPAs;
- a requirement for mandatory swift bricks for new buildings (Scotland is the first country in the UK to legislate for this); and
- an amendment to the existing biodiversity duty to require all public bodies and officeholders to take the new biodiversity targets into account when fulfilling their duties.
Part 2 of the Bill (as introduced) was removed at Stage 2 by amendment and the government decided not to reintroduce it at Stage 3. As it was originally drafted, ministers would have been given sweeping powers to change or remove key protections under the Environmental Impact Assessment and Habitats Regulations, with limited oversight from the Scottish Parliament. This raised concern among many eNGOs and MSPs about risks to environmental protections in future, and eventually led instead to a government commitment to review all the guidance around the Regulations.
Changes to National Parks legislation
When the Bill passed, the Scottish government’s press announcement noted that the Act will “update the legal framework for National Parks – particularly in light of their leadership role in tackling key environmental and societal challenges, including the nature and climate crises.” When the Bill was introduced in early 2025 the changes proposed were:
– limited changes to the four National Park aims; modernising some language and adding a list of “sub-aims” which included specific mentions of climate change, biodiversity and access;
– introduction of a new duty on public bodies and office holders to have regard to the National Park aims;
– strengthening the duty on public bodies and office holders around delivering Park Plans from “have regard to” to “facilitate implementation of”;
– provision for National Park authorities to issue fixed penalty notices in relation to byelaws which they set;
– amending the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 (to address an omission from the 2003 Act), so that any new National Park authorities can be put on the same footing as local authorities under the Act and become access authorities.
APRS and SCNP gave written and oral evidence to the Rural Affairs Committee at Stage 1 seeking further changes. As this was taking place around the time the Scottish Government decided against taking a new National Park in south west Scotland forward, we also engaged with government officials and MSPs to see if and how the legislation could be used to improve the process of selection and designation of new National Parks in future.
At the Stage 2 Committee sessions there were nearly 40 amendments put forward to Part 3 of the Bill. Two amendments we had supported were agreed at that stage and several more were ‘not moved’ at the request of the Cabinet Secretary to allow more discussion with MSPs around them ahead of Stage 3. The two of our ‘asks’ achieved at Stage 2 were the removal of the wording “individual prosperity” from the last sub-aim and, more significantly, a new requirement for Scottish Ministers to publish a policy statement for National Parks at least every 10 years.
At Stage 3, nine further amendments to Part 3 of the Bill were pressed, seven of which were agreed. These resulted in three further changes to the list of sub-aims; a new requirement on Ministers to take expert advice before making a formal proposal for a new National Park; alterations to arrangements around the choice of Reporter and a new definition of “cultural heritage” being added to the Act.
APRS and SCNP put a lot of effort into work on the Bill, much of which was done alongside colleagues at SE LINK, whose support was extremely helpful. We are also very grateful to those MSPs on the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee who took the time to consider our written and oral evidence and in particular to the MSPs that met with us during the process and took forward the amendments we wanted to see. APRS evidence and briefings to MSPs from Stage 1 and 3 are available as Resources on the APRS website.
The text of the Bill, as passed, can be found on the Scottish Parliament’s website. It received Royal Assent on 12 March 2026.