Justice 2 Committee, 09 Nov 2004
Meeting date: Tuesday, November 9, 2004
Official Report
155KB pdf
Subordinate Legislation
Draft Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc (Scotland) Act 2000 (Consequential Provisions) (Scotland) Order 2004
I welcome everyone to the 30th meeting this year of the Justice 2 Committee. I have received apologies from Colin Fox, but, as far as I am aware, Jackie Baillie hopes to be with us.
I welcome to the meeting the Deputy Minister for Justice, Hugh Henry, and his departmental colleagues Joyce Lugton and Norman Macleod. Agenda item 1 is subordinate legislation and the minister is here to move a motion in respect of a Scottish statutory instrument on the abolition of feudal tenure.
Section 128 of the Title Conditions (Scotland) Act 2003 gives Scottish ministers the power to make incidental or consequential amendments to enactments. The draft order before us today falls into that category.
The Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc (Scotland) Act 2000 changed the procedure for recording deeds in the register of sasines. As I am sure we are all aware, the new procedure makes it necessary to make consequential changes to the Land Registers (Scotland) Act 1868 and the Titles to Land Consolidation (Scotland) Act 1868, which is what the draft order does. The new process will require an application for recording to be made and the amendments to the acts reflect the requirement that an application will always be needed. Without the proposed changes to the acts, it could be argued that there are circumstances in which a deed would have to be recorded even if no application was made.
The amendment to the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Scotland) Act 1980 is a consequential one to remove a section that was made obsolete by the 2000 act. In essence, the three amendments are tidying-up measures that were overlooked at the time that the 2000 act was passed.
I move,
That the Justice 2 Committee recommends that the draft Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc (Scotland) Act 2000 (Consequential Provisions) (Scotland) Order 2004 be approved.
Thank you. Members do not seem to have any questions. Clearly this has been keeping you from your sleep at night, minister.
It has indeed.
The demise of warrants of registration will be seared to your soul.
When we get into this sort of detail, I can see why you became a lawyer, convener.
Life has certainly been made simpler in some respects. Given that there are no questions, I ask the committee to agree that we recommend to the Parliament that the draft order be approved.
Members indicated agreement.
I thank the minister and his colleagues for attending.