§ Mr. GallieTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what progress has been made in extending registration of title under the Land Register (Scotland) Act 1979 to further areas of Scotland; and if he will make a statement. [37691]
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonThe programme to extend the land register was announced in 1992. At that time the counties of Renfrew, Dunbarton, Lanark and the Barony and Regality of Glasgow were already on the land register.
Since 1992, the counties of Clackmannan, Stirling, West Lothian, Fife, Aberdeen and Kincardine have been taken on and the land register now covers 57 per cent. of total housing stock.
Following the 1994 report of the Committee of Public Accounts, "Registers of Scotland: Service to the Public" Cmd 2739, the Keeper of the Registers has been considering whether the programme should be amended. I have now approved a revised programme for the remaining counties as shown in the table.
The main changes are that Wigtown and Kirkcudbright are to be covered in 1997 and the borders counties and East Lothian in 1999, instead of in all cases in 2002.
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Operational date County 1 April 1997 Ayr Dumfries Wigtown Kirkcudbright
Operational date County 1 April 1998 Angus Perth Kinross 1 April 1999 Berwick East Lothian Peebles Roxburgh Selkirk 1 April 2000 Midlothian 1 April 2002 Argyll Bute 1 April 2003 Banff Caithness Inverness Moray Nairn Orkney and Shetland Ross and Cromarty Sutherland