§ Mr. McMahonasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what is the current numerical strength of the rent officer service in Scotland; whether he anticipates a decrease in the manpower of the service in the near future; and what is the average length of time the rent officer service takes to determine a fair rent.
§ Mr. RifkindAt 1 March 1981 the complement of the Rent Registration Service in Scotland was 36 rent officers and five senior rent officers. A reduction of one post is expected shortly and there may be a further reduction of up to two posts in the period up to 1 April 1984.
The flow of applications for registration is much affected by the receipt from time to time of multiple applications from the bigger landlords. An average figure for the time taken to dispose of an application is for that reason liable to be misleading, but my best estimate for Scotland as a whole at present is around three months.