§ MR. WEIR (Ross and Cromarty)I beg to ask the Lord Advocate, as representing the Secretary for Scotland, having regard to the fact that the Departmental Committee which was appointed to inquire into the registration system adopted in the Sasine Office, Register House, Edinburgh, reported in October, 1897, that the Search Sheet, which, when introduced, was estimated to effect an annual saving of £2,405, had actually resulted in an annual loss of 969 £2,700, will he say whether he will take steps to reorganise the work so as to prevent this loss; and will he state the number of deeds annually registered by the public, and consider the advisability of reducing the charge made for registration.
MR. A. GRAHAM MURRAYThe Report mentioned does not bear out the allegation made in the first paragraph of the question. I am informed by the keeper of the Sasine Office that the Search Sheet has effected the saving originally contemplated as the four official searchers, with their staff of clerks, have been abolished, and searchers are now issued by means of the Search Sheet by the ordinary established staff, which has also been reduced from ninety-two clerks to seventy-five, notwithstanding a great increase of business. Nor is it accurate to represent as loss the cost of the Search Sheet, which has other valuable advantages beyond its function in facilitating the issue of a search to a private individual. The answer to the first paragraph is therefore in the negative. The number of deeds recorded is published annually in the Judicial Statistics. There is no proposal to revise the charges for registration, which are very moderate, and have been acquiesced in by the legal profession without objection for several years.