Official Report 445KB pdf
Land Register of Scotland (Automated Registration) etc Regulations 2014 [draft]
Land Registration etc (Scotland) Act 2012 (Amendment and Transitional) Order 2014 [draft]
Item 3 is consideration of two draft Scottish statutory instruments. I welcome to the meeting the Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Tourism, Fergus Ewing. He is joined by Hugh Welsh, head of data; Grant Hall, head of 2012 act implementation, and Kirsten Simmonet-Lefevre, solicitor, who are all from Registers of Scotland.
Minister, do you want to introduce the instruments?
Thank you, convener. Good morning, everyone.
I am pleased to have been invited by the committee to speak to the instruments, which are the final part of a suite of subordinate legislation that must be in force for the designated day of the Land Registration etc (Scotland) Act 2012, which is 8 December. On that day, the new scheme of land registration that is provided for in the 2012 act will come into force, thereby bringing into effect a fairer and more efficient system of land registration for the people of Scotland, and providing the necessary technical tools to enable completion of the land register. The instruments that are under consideration, which I think are narrow in scope, will provide further practical details on what requires to be in place to ensure the smooth introduction of that new scheme of land registration.
Since 2008, Registers of Scotland has been operating a computer system called automated registration of title to land—commonly known as ARTL—to register electronic deeds in the land register of Scotland. More than 90,000 deeds have been registered using the system, which allows solicitors, institutional lenders and local authorities to register electronically certain deeds that affect land register titles. ARTL applications attract an abated fee that reflects the lower cost of processing such applications, which has saved people transacting with property in the region of £1 million in registration fees since the system was introduced in 2008.
ARTL has its legislative basis in amendments to the Land Registration (Scotland) Act 1979 and the Requirements of Writing (Scotland) Act 1995. Although those amendments will be repealed by the Land Registration etc (Scotland) Act 2012 on the designated day, the 2012 act contains specific powers to enable automated registration to continue from that date. Those powers are being used in the draft Land Register of Scotland (Automated Registration) etc Regulations 2014, which are under discussion today, to maintain a continuing legislative basis for ARTL. Registers of Scotland intends to continue to operate ARTL from the designated day, which is, as I have said, 8 December. The regulations will not change any of the policies that underpin the system. The ARTL system has been modified to reflect the new scheme of land registration that is provided for by the 2012 act.
The regulations restate current policy and practice to ensure that ARTL remains a secure system for electronic registration of deeds. For example, regulation 4 sets out the duties on authorised persons using ARTL, including the requirement for an identity verification meeting between Registers of Scotland and the person representing the organisation in question before they can start using the system.
Regulation 9 will amend the Electronic Documents (Scotland) Regulations 2014 by, among other things, introducing new regulation 6, which makes continued provision to make it competent to register electronic documents in the land register of Scotland, provided that the document meets certain technical requirements. It states that the electronic signature that is applied to such a document must be supplied by the keeper and certified by the keeper’s public key infrastructure. Once embedded in a digital deed, the digital signature provides proof that the document has not been altered since it was signed, as well as proof of whom it was signed by and when it was signed. That will ensure the system’s security. It is important to make it clear that this Scottish statutory instrument—the draft Land Register of Scotland (Automated Registration) etc Regulations 2014—will not generally allow registration of electronic documents.
The fees for ARTL have been set separately in the Registers of Scotland (Fees) Order 2014, which has been considered by the committee. I am delighted to say that the fees were maintained at their current levels and in August I announced that the statutory registration fees that are charged by Registers of Scotland will be frozen until at least April 2017, thereby maintaining registration fees at the same level since 2011.
The second instrument—the draft Land Registration etc (Scotland) Act 2012 (Amendment and Transitional) Order 2014—is mainly technical in nature and will make amendments to the 2012 act, as well as some consequential amendments to other legislation. Because the amendments are technical, I do not propose to go through the details in my remarks, but I am of course happy to take—with, I suspect, the assistance of my officials—the committee’s questions.
Thank you, minister.
You said that the fees have been frozen until April 2017. Have you been lobbied to do that, or have you simply decided that the move is good for the registration process and provides a good incentive to move forward?
We are aware of a general desire among the domestic and commercial property sector to be competitive and to maintain costs at as realistic and as low a level as possible, and we have taken those views into account. As a Government, we are also keen to ensure not only that property transactions in Scotland are registered professionally, effectively and swiftly by the keeper of the registers of Scotland—whose performance, I should say, has massively increased since I left practice; I am sure that that is just a coincidence—but that the financial burden of costs is kept to a minimum and that there is certainty about the fees. I am pleased, therefore, that we have been able to confirm that fees will remain at the current—that is, 2011—levels until 2017. That decision was taken after very careful consideration of complex matters such as the level of reserves, which we have discussed before, and with the keeper’s full co-operation, assistance and agreement.
We should perhaps recollect that it was this committee that scrutinised the Land Registration etc (Scotland) Act 2012, to which the minister referred, and that we were broadly supportive of it and welcomed its aims, intention and purpose. I simply record my welcome for the final two instruments that will complete the process of facilitating conveyancing and making the whole system fit for purpose in the 21st century.
11:45
Thank you, Mr MacKenzie. Do any other members wish to speak?
I will speak just very briefly, convener. I agree with Mike MacKenzie’s comments but, as I recall it, we had some lengthy discussions about the computer system. I note that regulation 3 provides for persons who are authorised to use what I understand to be a new system. Is that the case?
No—it is the same system. The regulations simply restate the policy. A few minor tweaks have been made, and the main difference is that there are fewer questions. What is set out in the regulations is basically in line with the 2012 act.
As no one else has any questions, I merely observe that the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee has indicated to us that it is content with the wording of both instruments, and that we have received no representation from any external bodies in relation to them.
For the next agenda item I invite the minister to move the motions.
Motions moved,
That the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee recommends that the Land Register of Scotland (Automated Registration) etc. Regulations 2014 [draft] be approved.
That the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee recommends that the Land Registration etc. (Scotland) Act 2012 (Amendment and Transitional) Order 2014 [draft] be approved.—[Fergus Ewing.]
Motions agreed to.
Is the committee content for the convener and clerk to produce a short factual report of the committee’s decision and arrange for its publication?
Members indicated agreement.
I thank the minister and his officials for attending. Minister, this might be your last visit to the committee in your current position—who knows?—so I just want to wish you success in the coming days.
Thank you very much, convener. I think that your comment was meant in a very constructive way, so I will accept it in that spirit. Of course, it has been a pleasure for me.
And for us, minister.
With that, we move into private session.
11:47 Meeting continued in private until 12:11.Previous
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