HC Deb 24 July 1997 vol 298 cc688-9W
Mr. Ernie Ross

To 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. [10872]

Mr. Dewar

The original 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, Kincardine, Ayr, Dumfries, Kirkcudbright and Wigtown have been made operational. The areas where the land register currently operates over 60 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 considered whether the programme should be amended. A revised programme was adopted in 1996.

Registers of Scotland is now operating as a trading fund. Because it has been experiencing unexpected difficulties in assimilating its new computer systems, and in order that it can meet its objectives in its first three years of its trading fund status, I have now approved a revised programme for the remaining counties as shown below. The main change is simply that no new counties will be taken into the land register in 1998, but the year 2003 remains the target date for completion of the extension programme.

Land Register Extension Programme: 1997

April 1999

  • Angus
  • Kinross
  • Perth.

October 1999

  • Berwick
  • East Lothian
  • Peebles
  • Roxburgh
  • Selkirk.

April 2000

  • Argyll
  • Bute.

April 2001

  • Midlothian.

April 2002

  • Inverness
  • Nairn.

April 2003

  • Banff
  • Caithness
  • Moray
  • Orkney and Shetland
  • Ross and Cromarty
  • Sutherland.