§ Mr. Craigenasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on the future of the section of the department of the registers of Scotland concerned with the searching of personal and property registers; and what will be the effect on services to house buyers.
§ Mr. LangFrom 31 January the Department of the Registers of Scotland will accept requests for departmental searches of the Register of Sasines and the Personal Register only in those areas to which the Land Register has been extended. In the remaining areas searches of the Sasines and Personal Registers will be carried out by the private search firms which already cater for more than 90 per cent. of the market. The other search activities of the Department, including the free provision of reports from the Land Register, will not be affected. The staffing arid other resources released by this change will he redeployed to property registration, expanding the Department's capacity to extend the Land Register. This extension will lead to reduced registration charges from which house buyers have more to gain than they have from continuation of the Department's searches.