Official Report search · Parliament Workbench

Chamber

Meeting of the Parliament 14 March 2012

14 Mar 2012 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Land Registration etc (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Fraser, Murdo Con Mid Scotland and Fife Watch on SPTV

I declare my interest as a member of the Law Society of Scotland.

As convener of the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee, I mention that the committee recommended to Parliament that it should agree the general principles of the bill.

As the minister did, I acknowledge the work that has been done by the Scottish Law Commission—initially by my old friend Professor George Gretton—in its comprehensive consultation on the first draft of the bill. I thank all those who gave oral evidence or submitted written evidence to aid the committee’s consideration, and I thank the committee’s clerking team for all their assistance on what is a very technical subject. I also thank the committee’s adviser, Professor Kenneth Reid, who was able to put in layman’s terms, for the benefit of committee members, some of the issues that are addressed in the bill.

Last, and by no means least, I thank all the committee members for their hard work and engagement on the bill. It is fair to say that for the non-lawyers on the committee—which means everybody apart from myself—the prospect of dealing with the bill was probably not greeted with the greatest of enthusiasm at the outset, but as we got into the subject, some of the issues stimulated some debate and, I hope, interest.

As the minister said, the bill represents a much-needed update to, and extension of, existing legislation. Although it is comprehensive and very technical in parts, there are some areas that are of real interest to people in Scotland. There is much to be commended in the bill; for example, the move to the use of e-documents, the closure of the register of sasines so that we have one land register rather than two, and the introduction of advance notices.

However, the committee considered that a number of areas of the bill could be improved upon. I will comment on those in the time that is available to me. My first point relates to the key policy aim of the bill, which is completion of the land register. The key powers that are aimed at increasing land registrations are, first, increased triggers for first registration of land and, secondly, voluntary and keeper-induced registrations. We know that only about 21 per cent of the land is currently on the land register and that there has been slow progress since the Land Registration (Scotland) Act 1979, so the committee welcomes the powers to increase land registration, but we have some concerns about how the powers might work in practice.

A key method of increasing land registration is voluntary land registration. The committee heard a lot of support for voluntary registration and heard that a similar method of registration has been used successfully in England and Wales, where a reduced fee has been used as an incentive. Given that the approach would be key in achieving the objective of a complete land register, and given that we learned that Registers of Scotland has reserves of about £75 million, the committee asks the minister to consider introducing incentives to encourage voluntary registration, particularly in complex cases.

Keeper-induced registration will give the keeper the power to register land without an application from, or notification to, a landowner. The committee had concerns about how that might work in practice. Which land would be subject to keeper-induced registration? When would registrations begin? What fees would be payable? I am grateful to the minister for the clarity that he has provided on some of those issues.

Another issue is that even if there is no fee, expense will be occasioned to landowners in checking the land register and the work that has been done by the keeper. It must be borne in mind that even with a zero fee the exercise is not without cost to landowners.

Search Hansard contributions

Meeting of the Parliament 14 March 2012

In the same item of business