§ Mr. Allan StewartTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement about his plans to establish the Department of the Registers of Scotland as a "next steps" agency.
§ Mr. RifkindI informed the House on 11 January that the Department of the Registers of Scotland was to be established as the first "next steps" agency from within my sphere of responsibility on 1 April. I shall preside at a launch ceremony on 6 April.
Over the next three years I have set the agency a target of reducing the turnround times on its two principal categories of work as follows:
for recording writs on the Sasines Register, a reduction from 30 to 17 weeks;for registration of dealings on the Land Register, a reduction from 35 to 19 weeks.The agency's long-term aim will be to achieve turnround times of eight weeks for both registers.
During the coming year, the Keeper will be presenting a phased programme for the extension of the Land Register to the remaining two thirds of Scotland.
In addition, I have set the agency a target of achieving a reduction in unit costs of at least 5 per cent. in real terms for each of its main categories of work in each of the three years from 1990–91 to 1992–93.
I am establishing an advisory board to give me a view on the range and quality of the agency's services and on its priorities. The membership will represent the main users of the agency's services.
The Keeper of the Registers of Scotland as the agency's chief executive, will be directly accountable to me for the agency's achievements.
I have placed a copy of the agency's framework document and the accompanying press release in the 829W Libraries of both Houses. This latter document contains details of the target turnround times I have set for the main activities of the agency over its first three years.