§ Mr. Home RobertsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on the financial452W performance of the Registers of Scotland executive agency for each year since 1990; what profits have been generated; how much of such profits has been paid to the Treasury; and if it is his policy that the agency should continue to generate profits in this way. [15527]
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonThe subject of the question relates to matters undertaken by the Registers of Scotland agency. I have asked its chief executive, Mr. A.W. Ramage, to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Alan W. Ramage to Mr. John Home Robertson, dated 27 March 1995:
I refer to your question about the financial performance of Registers of Scotland Executive Agency in each year since 1990.The Agency is required by statute to cover all expenditure by fee income. Income in excess of expenditure, in terms of cash-based Vote accounting, is surrendered to Treasury at the end of each financial year. The information relating to the financial years from 1990–91 to 1993–94 is shown below.
1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 Surplus/Deficit (£000s) (276) 1,346 5,291 5,819 It may be helpful if I explain that the comparatively large surpluses in 1992–93 and 1993–94 arose from the processing and elimination of backlogs of work which had built up as a result of the very high level of activity in the Scottish property market during the preceding five years. Accounts prepared on an accruals basis reflect more accurately the Agency's trading position and show, for 1992–93 and 1993–94, trading surpluses of £2.823m and £0.149m respectively.Projections of future property market activity allied to more flexible working systems indicate that it will be possible to match income more closely to expenditure in the years to 1997–98. The Agency's forecasts for 1994–95, 1995–96, 1996–97 and 1997–98 are that income will exceed expenditure by approximately £100,000 (or less than 0.5% of expenditure) in each of these years.