“No significant impact” is the official verdict, but a new Order approved by the King in Council at Buckingham Palace on 14 October 2026 quietly widens the forestry functions that may be handled through section 93 arrangements under the Scotland Act 1998. The measure was laid before both the UK Parliament and the Scottish Parliament on 16 October 2026 and is due to come into force on 5 December 2026. This is the sort of change that sits well away from Westminster theatre, yet it still matters on the ground. In plain terms, the order updates which devolved forestry and tree health functions of the Scottish Ministers can, where arrangements are made, be exercised by a Minister of the Crown. For rural Scotland and for firms moving timber, trees and wood packaging across the Border, that is not just legal housekeeping.

The amending order goes back to the Scotland Act 1998 (Specification of Functions and Transfer of Property etc.) Order 2019 and rewrites parts of it with much sharper forestry wording. New definitions are inserted for “forestry material”, “forestry professional operator”, “tree”, “tree pest” and “wood packaging material”. The wording is broad by design. It covers wood with its natural round surface still on, bark, chips, particles, shavings, sawdust, wood waste and scrap, as well as living trees and shrubs. It also captures the timber used in packaging and dunnage, which will matter to businesses whose connection to forestry is not planting or felling, but storing, moving and carrying goods.

The order also sets out who counts as a forestry professional operator in Scotland. That includes people or firms introducing forestry material into Scotland, moving it within Scotland, storing or aggregating it, exporting it, treating or marking wood packaging material, repairing packaging material, and handling tree pests for testing, science, education, trials or breeding work. That may read like narrow drafting, but it tells readers exactly where ministers believe oversight may be needed. The legal net now reaches across more of the chain, from import and storage through to export and specialist plant health work, which is particularly relevant in sectors where pests do not stop at an administrative boundary.

The bigger constitutional change sits in article 3. The order adds the Scottish Ministers’ functions under Regulation (EU) 2016/2031 on protective measures against plant pests, Regulation (EU) 2017/625 on official controls, and the Plant Health (Official Controls and Miscellaneous Provisions) (Scotland) Regulations 2019 to the list that can be covered by section 93 arrangements. It does not stop there. The drafting then sweeps in any other function of the Scottish Ministers so far as it relates to monitoring and controlling tree pests, promoting tree health, moving forestry material, or regulating forestry professional operators. That gives the 2019 order a wider and cleaner reach than before.

There is one notable deletion as well. According to the explanatory note published on legislation.gov.uk, the order removes a reference to section 44 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 because there are no functions under that section capable of being exercised by way of arrangements under section 93 of the Scotland Act 1998. That is technical, but it is still worth noting. It strips out wording that served no practical legal purpose and leaves the order better aligned with what can actually be done in law. In a field where responsibility needs to be clear fast, especially around plant health, that sort of tidy-up has real value.

Ministers have not produced a full impact assessment, saying no significant effect on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen. That points to this being more about legal clarity than a fresh compliance burden landing overnight on 5 December 2026. Still, the businesses and institutions touched by the wording are hardly marginal. Sawmills, nurseries, timber merchants, freight operators, pallet firms and land managers all sit somewhere inside this chain. For Scotland’s rural sector, and for operators trading across the Border into Northern England, the order is a reminder that devolution often moves forward through quiet statutory instruments rather than grand announcements. This one does not redraw the settlement, but it does set clearer rules for how forestry and tree health functions can be handled when governments need to act together.