§ Mr. Wrigglesworthasked the Secretary of State for Trade what are his views of the possibility of keeping in London microfilm copies of the records of limited companies registered in Edinburgh in the same way that copies are kept of records maintained in Cardiff.
§ Mr. Clinton DavisAs indicated in a reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Barking (Miss Richardson) today, filming of the records of companies registered in Scotland has now started. From the autumn of this year, a microfiche search system will be introduced progressively in Edinburgh compatible with that which exists for companies registered in England and Wales, whose records can now be inspected in London and Cardiff. Although it would not be feasible to maintain a full duplicate search facility in London for Scottish records, consideration is being given to providing microfiche records of particular companies against specific requests made in London or Cardiff. Similar provisions would be made for the inspection of English and Welsh records in Edinburgh.
§ Miss Richardsonasked the Secretary of State for Trade whether a start has now been made on the microfilming of the companies registration records in Scotland; and what is the latest estimate for completion of the conversion to microfilm.
§ Mr. Clinton DavisFilming of these records has now started and, with additional camera facilities being made available, the work of conversion should be completed in about a year's time
42WBecause substantial alterations are needed to adapt the public search room at Edinburgh, microfilmed records cannot be used immediately but it is hoped that microfilming reading and other facilities will be introduced into the redesigned search room at the beginning of October 1978 when some 12,000–14,000 files should be on microfilm.
The revised programme is a significant improvement on that announced to the House on 7th November 1977 and the new presentation of records should he of benefit both to the general public and to the registrars at Edinburgh and Cardiff.