2. Methodology
The qualitative survey was designed to capture public priorities and aspirations for land reform in Scotland. The survey used open-ended questions to allow respondents to express their views in their own words, specifically focusing on:
- Current priorities: “When you think about land in your area, what’s most important to you?”
- Desired change and impact: “What changes would you like to see in how land is owned and used in Scotland, and what difference would that make to you, your community, or your work?”
Demographic data including age, gender, and postcode, as well as asking participants to indicate whether their response was informed by a particular interest or occupation were also collected. Explicit consent was sought from respondents to use their responses as anonymised quotes within our reporting.
The survey was hosted on the Scottish Land Commission website and promoted via social media with an advertising campaign on Facebook and Instagram to reach a wide and diverse audience. In addition, several sectoral membership organisations promoted survey completion amongst their memberships. The survey remained open for responses from 14th May 2025 to 6th September 2025. To complement the digital survey, the Commission conducted a series of in-person public meetings to engage directly with local communities. These were held in Dumfries, Aberdeen, Wick, and Stornoway. In addition, contributions from topic experts were sought.1
The survey generated an extensive dataset reflecting on the range of issues most significant to the Scottish public. As is common with online, self-selecting qualitative surveys, the respondent profile naturally attracted participants with a pre-existing interest or professional experience in the topics. While this ensures depth of data, the sample reflects a specific segment of the public. The survey was analysed through an inductive thematic analysis using the qualitative analysis software Nvivo 14.2 The final themes are available in the codebook Appendix 1. Summary figures of the demographics have been generated in MS Excel and maps with QGIS.3
This report provides a descriptive account of the responses gathered through the online survey. While some of the issues raised fell outwith the immediate remit of the Scottish Land Commission, they provide insights into public perceptions and sentiment about land related issues. Specific takeaways in the context of the Land Commission’s work have been published in our “What We Heard” report.4 Key policy avenues to explore resulting from this work and our broader research have been published in our “ScotLand Futures – Next Steps for Land Reform” report.5
The responses to the survey are available in Appendix 2. The responses for which we did not receive consent for publication have been redacted. Further redactions in the data set are indicated where information that would have made respondents identifiable, or where private individuals, businesses, or organisations were named.
1 ScotLand Futures: Voices from Scotland - https://www.landcommission.gov.scot/downloads/692444ee8c10c_ScotLand-Futures-Voices-from-Scotland.pdf
2 Nvivo 14
3 QGIS
4 ScotLand Futures: What we heard - https://www.landcommission.gov.scot/downloads/692444ee87aac_ScotLand-Futures-What-We-Heard-FINAL.pdf
5 ScotLand Futures – Next Steps for Land Reform - https://www.landcommission.gov.scot/downloads/SLC-Futures-policy-digital.pdf
