Economy and Fair Work Committee 29 January 2025
In general, Registers of Scotland brings in enough revenue through its various activities to cover its costs, which, from a public finance point of view, is very welcome. That is the principle to which we operate in order to understand the costs of running the service and the likely number of transactions. We used that to arrive at a fee structure that would allow ROS to cover its costs as a consequence.
The initial £80 was based on an estimate of the number of transactions. That estimate was then revised as more work was undertaken in order to have a more thorough understanding of that. We estimate that there will be 25,000 transactions or thereabouts over the period of a year once the registers are up and running. If we do the calculations on that, with our estimated running costs, which are close to £1 million when everything is up and running, we come to that schedule of charges. That is why it is there.
It is about getting the balance right with regard to what people will feel is reasonable. Extensive consultation was undertaken on the matter, and many of the points that you raise were made. That was part of the reason for reducing the £80 charge to £30. I am not sure how many sheep you can buy for £30, but, in the grand scheme of things, if you are running sizeable transactions with many other fees involved, and borrowing against assets, I would expect that that figure would not be a significant issue.
As we move forward, there will be scope to revise the fees depending on whether more, or fewer, transactions come through, or how we see the costs working through.