Part 8: Public Authority Land Section 208: Duty of public authorities to prepare report of surplus land holdings
This section is a transparency measure intended to make public whether (and if so why) public authorities are holding surplus land. This section therefore contains a duty on relevant public authorities to publish a report containing details of surplus land which they hold in England, Wales or Scotland.
	For these purposes surplus land is land which the authority has determined is surplus and has been retained for longer than two years after the date of that determination; or, in the case of land which is used wholly or mainly for residential purposes, for longer than six months after the date of that determination. Reports must set out why the body has not disposed of any surplus land.
	Under this section a public authority which must prepare a report includes a Minister of the Crown and any public authority (or kind of public authority) which the Secretary of State specifies in regulations. However, in relation to land in Scotland the power may only be used to specify Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs or a body to which paragraph 3 of part 3 of Schedule 5 to the Scotland Act 1998 applies. Bodies to which paragraph 3 applies include for example the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
	In relation to land in Wales, the power may not be used to impose duties on an authority which has functions that are exercisable only in relation to Wales and relate to a matter which the Welsh Ministers have power to deal with, or which the National Assembly for Wales can legislate about.
	In determining whether land is surplus to requirements, and in carrying out other functions under this section, a relevant public authority must have regard to guidance given by the Secretary of State.
	This section also gives the Secretary of State power to provide in regulations that for the purposes of this section, land is to be counted as surplus in relation to a specified public authority or type of public authority notwithstanding the timescales referred to above. Regulations may also exclude specified land or descriptions of land from the duty to report. They may also make further provision about reports such as what must be included in a report and the form and timing of reports.