# Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2026, Section 53: Forestry: offence of unauthorised felling

Extent: S

(1) The Forestry and Land Management (Scotland) Act 2018 is modified as follows.
(2) In section 23 (offence of unauthorised felling)—
(a) in subsection (1), after “fells” insert “or knowingly causes or permits another person to fell”,
(b) after subsection (3), insert—
“(4) It is a defence for a person charged with an offence under subsection (1) to show that the person reasonably believed that the felling was carried out in accordance with a permission, direction or notice mentioned in paragraph (b)(i) to (vi) of that subsection.”.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2026/6/section/53 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/natural-environment-scotland-act-2026/section-53
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.