Registers of Scotland (Information and Access, etc) Miscellaneous Amendment Order 2022 [Draft]
The committee will now take evidence on the draft Registers of Scotland (Information and Access, etc) Miscellaneous Amendment Order 2022.
I welcome back to the meeting Tom Arthur, Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth, who is joined by Megan Stefaniak, who is a lawyer with the Scottish Government, and Harry Murray, who is policy lead at Registers of Scotland. I invite the minister to make a short opening statement.
I am grateful for the opportunity to speak to the draft order, which relates to the provision of extracts of documents that are held in registers under the control of the keeper of the registers of Scotland.
The keeper plays a vital role in the Scottish economy by safeguarding property rights through the registration of documents in the land register and register of sasines, in addition to the registration of documents in a number of other registers that support the legal profession.
Extracts are copies of registered documents that have an evidential status equivalent to that of the original and which can, therefore, be used in lieu of the original, including in court. Prior to the pandemic, they were mainly issued as paper documents in line with how customers interacted with ROS at the time. However, since the pandemic began, the majority of extracts issued by ROS have been in digital format. That reflects the way in which ROS’s and the legal profession’s work has shifted towards the use of digital services where possible.
The provision of digital extracts has proven hugely popular with stakeholders. Strong support has been expressed informally and through public consultation for enabling the provision of digital extracts across all the keeper’s registers. The order seeks to achieve that in the following ways.
The register of deeds in the books of council and session has, until this point, remained paper based due to its primary function as a way of preserving documents. However, the register will open to electronic documents on 1 October this year, and the order makes provision that extracts can be issued in electronic format from that time.
The order also sets out the default form of extract to be issued, depending on how the registered document was submitted. Extracts for paper documents will be provided on paper, and extracts for electronic documents will be provided electronically. In both cases, electronic or paper extracts are available on request if the default format is not suitable for the customer.
The order also makes provision that extracts of deeds registered in the register of sasines can be issued in electronic format. That brings the register into line with existing provision governing the other property register—the land register.
Finally, the order makes a number of clarificatory amendments to the Writs Execution (Scotland) Act 1877 in support of the provision of digital extracts and removes reference to legislation that is no longer in force.
I am joined by Harry Murray from Registers of Scotland and Megan Stefaniak from the Scottish Government legal directorate, who will be happy to assist me in answering any questions.
Thank you, minister. Do members have any questions?
As members have no questions, we move to agenda item 3, which is formal consideration of motion S6M-04636. I invite the minister to move the motion.
Motion moved,
That the Economy and Fair Work Committee recommends that the Registers of Scotland (Information and Access, etc.) Miscellaneous Amendment Order 2022 [draft] be approved.—[Tom Arthur]
Motion agreed to.
A short factual report of the committee’s decision will be prepared and published.
I thank the minister and his officials for joining us. We move into private session for the remainder of the meeting.
11:03 Meeting continued in private until 11:56.Previous
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