§ Mrs. Margaret EwingTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland whether any additional resources will be made available to accelerate the introduction of the provisions of the Land Registration (Scotland) Act 1979 relating to registration; and if he will state for each non-operational area (i) the date up to which the relative Sasine Register has presently been completed, and (ii) any representations as to the possible consequences in conveyancing transactions; and what response has been made.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonThe Department of the Registers of Scotland is required by statute to recover its expenditure from fee income. Since 1989 the Department has had more freedom to finance expansion from extra fee income. I have recently made an order, to come into force on 4 July, to increase some of the fee levels previously set in 1981. The additional income will allow backlogs to be reduced and pave the way for extending the Land Register.
Information as at 6 June 1990 about the dates to which the Sasine register volumes are complete is set out in the table below.
Representations have been made from time to time by the Law Society of Scotland about the effect on conveyancing transactions of delays in registration but these have not been specific to individual areas.
In establishing the Department as an executive agency in April 1990 my right hon. and learned Friend set targets for turnround times to be reduced from 30 weeks in 1989–90 to 17 weeks in 1992–93 as respects the General Register of Sasines, and from 35 to 17 weeks for registration of dealings in the Land Register.
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County 1989 Aberdeen 8 September Angus 22 November Argyll 5 September Ayr 31 July Banff 20 October Berwick 12 December Bute 31 August Caithness 30 October
County 1989 Clackmannan 16 October Dumfries 2 August East Lothian 10 October Fife 2 October Inverness 17 August Kincardine 24 October Kinross 11 December Kirkcudbright 28 July Midlothian 24 October Moray 23 October Nairn 23 October Orkney and Shetland 16 October Peebles 5 December Perth 5 December Ross and Cromarty 25 September Roxburgh 13 December Selkirk 4 December Sterling 28 August Sutherland 9 October West Lothian 21 August Wigtown 4 August