§ 43. Mr. Strangasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what representations he has received about the proposal further to privatise some of the search work carried out for the public by the Department of Registers of Scotland; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. LangRepresentations have been received from the trade union side of the Department of the Registers of Scotland, and from several hon. Members, about the decision to limit the Department's searches of the Register of Sasines and the personal register to areas to which the land register has been extended.
Private search firms already account for more than 90 per cent. of searches in non-land register areas. The Department is under no obligation to offer a search service, and the resources saved will be used to improve
£000s 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 (a) Pay 166,855 184,261 183,239 199,250 206,783 222,019 (b) Current 217,823 241,073 258,737 276,933 291,574 312,705 (c) Capital 11,788 12,257 13,400 15,976 20,859 20,455 Total (b and c) 229,611 253,330 272,137 292,909 312,433 333,160 Source: Scottish Local Government Financial Statistics.