Top Tweets for #SCOTLANDCAN

Just got an FOI request back from the Scottish Government that says there are no London Court of Arbitration (LCIA) mechanisms in Scotland's 18 Special Economic Zones and 2 Freeports. This means corporations cannot sue the Scottish Government over breach of contract in a potential arbitration dispute. This removes a major barrier to sovereignty, allowing a future government (e.g., post-2026 elections) to legislatively "undo" elements like tax incentives or site designations more easily than in England/Wales. However, full revocation would likely involve phased transitions, compensation, and UK coordination to avoid legal/economic pitfalls. This means any incoming Scottish Government can revoke the 25-year licenses on all of Scotland's deregulated free zones. This doesn't mean that Scottish free zones are benign; there are still myriad problems embedded within them, after all they are still deregulated, they are still expansionist, they're draining astronomical amounts of public money for profit motive (illegal in the EU), green washing, potential money-laundering, mandatory beneficial-ownership registers, expanded AML checks for on-site transactions, and cooperation with UK/National Crime Agency. Environmental pollution: Strengthen planning & permit conditions; require environmental bonds/decommissioning guarantees up front. Datacentres & resource use: Impose resource-use caps, require grid-impact assessments, and prioritise sustainable energy conditions. Tax evasion & state aid: Tighten local tax relief eligibility, install clawbacks for non-performance, notify UK where required for any subsidy-like measures. Corporate expansionism / corporate creep: Limit automatic rollovers and require case-by-case approvals for footprint expansion. Compulsory purchase reforms: Ensure CPO practice and compensation rules are transparent; use reform consultations (you linked the CPO consultation paper) to tighten protections. The absence of pre-embedded LCIA arbitration in Scottish free zones gives a future government materially more policy room, but it does not remove legal, contractual, investment-treaty, fiscal, environmental, and political constraints; careful auditing, phased policy design, UK coordination, and targeted administrative levers are essential to unwind or reform free-zone arrangements without causing undue legal or economic fallout.