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Building (Forms) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2006 (SSI 2006/163)
Item 2 is consideration of three items of subordinate legislation. The Building (Forms) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2006 were laid on 22 March and are subject to the negative procedure. They provide for the substitution of the schedule to the Building (Forms) (Scotland) Regulations 2005 and set out the amended forms that are prescribed for the purposes of section 36 of the Building (Scotland) Act 2003. The substitution is being made to take account of the experiences of verifiers of the new system, in the light of which amendments were considered necessary to provide clarity for verifiers and applicants and to ensure consistent enforcement and administration of the new system. The committee made no recommendation when it considered the 2005 regulations. Do members want to comment on the instrument?
I am content to support the regulations, but I am conscious that they might add to an accumulation of bureaucratic clutter. The new schedule lists 16 prescribed forms, which cover important matters, but are separate forms for "Amendment to Building Warrant" and "Extension of Period of Validity of Building Warrant" necessary? Might a combined form be possible instead of separate forms for "Defective Building Notice" and "Dangerous Building Notice"? I hope that the Executive's general principle is to try to keep such matters simple. I always worry when we add to the inventory of forms with which citizens have to cope.
Would you be satisfied if the committee reported to the Parliament that we support the regulations and wrote separately to the Minister for Communities to express your concerns about excessive bureaucracy?
I would appreciate that, if the suggestion is agreeable to the committee.
Do members agree to take the action that I suggested?
The committee will make no recommendation on the regulations in its report to the Parliament. However, we will write to the minister to make the point that Mr Home Robertson has raised.
Register of Sasines (Methods of Operation) (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (SSI 2006/164)
We move on to the Register of Sasines (Methods of Operation) (Scotland) Regulations 2006, which were laid on 22 March and are subject to the negative procedure. The regulations make provisions for the recording of deeds that are presented for recording in the register of sasines, to facilitate a change in the medium in which the record volume is compiled from microfiche to digital images. The provisions are set out in the paper that the clerks have prepared. If members have no comments, are they content with the regulations?
The committee will make no recommendation on the regulations in its report to the Parliament.
Scottish Charity Register (Transitional) Order 2006 (SSI 2006/188)
The Scottish Charity Register (Transitional) Order 2006 was laid on 31 March and is subject to the negative procedure. The instrument makes transitional provisions for the purpose of the commencement of section 99 of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005. The purpose of the order is to disapply section 3(3) of the 2005 act until 23 August 2007, which will give the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator 18 months in which to obtain the information that is required for the Scottish charity register under section 3(3). If the order were not made, OSCR would be in breach of section 3(3) of the 2005 act and any charity that was not on the Scottish charity register when it came into being on 1 April would be unable to hold itself out as a charity in Scotland.
Is the committee content with the order?
The committee will make no recommendation on the order in its report to the Parliament.
Meeting suspended until 09:51 and thereafter continued in private until 12:23.