Join the David Hume Institute and Built Environment Forum Scotland for this free webinar to mark the publication of a new commissioned paper by Andy Wightman about Scotland’s land information system.

Andy Wightman, writer, researcher and former member of the Scottish Parliament will be joined by Professor Stewart Brymer, solicitor and Honorary Professor in law at the University of Dundee to discuss why Scotland’s land information service is critical infrastructure. 

Information about land and buildings are used everyday by businesses, policy-makers, academics and ordinary citizens. This information ranges from land ownership to valuation, from energy efficiency ratings to building types and from vegetation cover to flood risks. All of this information exists in some form, however much of it is not easily available and virtually none of it is made available in an integrated form. As the impacts of climate change intensify, there is even greater need for more timely, more comprehensive and more accessible information about land and buildings in Scotland.

This free webinar will be chaired by Ailsa Macfarlane, Director of the Built Environment Forum Scotland and is part of the David Hume Institute’s From Imagination to Action Series.

More about the speakers:

Andy Wightman

Andy is a writer and researcher focussing on land governance, land ownership and community land rights. He is the author of publications including Who Owns Scotland (1996), Scotland: Land and Power (1999), Community Land Rights: A Citizen’s Guide (2009) and The Poor Had No Lawyers (2010). He runs the Who Owns Scotland project. From 2016 to 2021, Andy was a Member of the Scottish Parliament. Andy was a Specialist Adviser to the House of Commons Scottish Affairs Committee Inquiry on Land Reform 2013-15 and was a member of the Commission on Local Tax Reform in 2015. He lives in Lochaber.

Professor Stewart Brymer

Stewart has over 40 years' experience as a solicitor.  He was the first solicitor in Scotland to be accredited by The Law Society of Scotland as a specialist in Commercial Leasing law in 1993 and in Intellectual Property law in 1999. He is an Honorary Professor in law at the University of Dundee. In the 2015 New Years Honours List in 2015 he was awarded an OBE for services to arts and culture in Dundee.

Ailsa MacFarlane

Ailsa became Director of BEFS in 2021, having initially joined the organisation in 2017 to lead policy and strategy work. Ailsa has wide experience leading nationwide, cultural-heritage, skills and training projects. Ailsa continually works in partnership to ensure the existing built environment is well represented, well understood, and seen to be delivering across national strategies and performance frameworks.  With a commitment to, when necessary, speaking truth to power - as well as addressing the more complex subjects; Ailsa loves nothing better than a mix of well-informed views providing the impetus for greater strategic actions.