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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

Gibson, Rob SNP Caithness, Sutherland and Ross Watch on SPTV

As the convener of the Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Committee, I have an interest in the Land Registration etc (Scotland) Bill dovetailing with the Agricultural Holdings (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill and the Long Leases (Scotland) Bill, both of which are before my committee. Registration of aspects of leasing are as important as registration of ownership, and there has been much debate on both bills about ensuring that that happens. It is in our interests that the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee bears that in mind at stage 2 and ensures that the bills dovetail.

I turn to the excellent report from the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee and highlight the issue of Ordnance Survey maps. The 6in:1 mile map—or the 1:10,000 map as it is now called—was used for the whole of the Highlands and Islands for many years. It is not up to scratch; it never was. It was not fit for purpose when we were having these debates in the mid-1990s, at a time when land registration was 20 years old. Did anyone ask Ordnance Survey to step up to the plate and get mapping properly? It is a union dividend for us that large areas of Scotland are inadequately mapped by Ordnance Survey. One per cent of the titles of Scotland are affected by the 1:10,000 scale, but of those, many are the largest estates that have never been registered except in sasines, and they are not properly mapped at all.

Why is that important? Crofting communities have a right to buy, and such communities have to provide details in mapped form of the area of which they wish to take ownership. We would therefore expect it to be necessary for landowners themselves to have their land mapped in a modern and up-to-date fashion. There is a direct link here between those issues, which is part of this Parliament’s wishes. I know that the Labour Party did not wish to see a map-based register for crofting, but as many people who are registering leases for farms and so on have to do that, Labour should recognise now that landowners should be registered and that crofters eventually will be, too. There has been no secondary legislation on that yet, but it is a point.

Annabel Goldie and others have mentioned fees. I suggest that, for a large estate, the price for registration is like selling off a couple of housing plots. Large estates are not short of capital for registration, so why are we not making the point that they have got the benefit now of voluntary registration at a reduced ad valorem rate? They should get on with it, or we should find means to ensure that we use the research area approach of the bill not just to apply to cities but to apply to areas in which communities may wish to use the right to buy, because they will have to have accurate maps to do that.

The bill is an excellent start, but it is important for Scotland’s future that the timeframe for the completion of the register is speeded up, because 30 or 40 years might not be a long time in land ownership, but it most certainly is when it comes to getting an up-to-date register that people can access electronically. Registers of Scotland’s mapping working group should ask Ordnance Survey when it will step up to the plate. We know that, during the Thatcher era, Ordnance Survey was cut back and was made to be a business, but it is supposed to be a service. Instead of seeking other means, we should demand that that service is there for us to use in future.

14:40

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Meeting of the Parliament 14 March 2012

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