Land Register completion update

Since the report on the Land Register completion consultation was published last month, we have made good progress on implementing its recommendations and speeding up the completion process.

We are currently working on the secondary legislation which, subject to ministerial approval, will allow us to implement the main recommendations. This includes a 25% reduction in voluntary registration fees, which we anticipate will take effect in late June.

Initial meetings have taken place with some of the larger public sector landholders. We have also had positive conversations with a number of private sector landowners, many of whom are now proactively engaged in voluntary registration.

Among the public bodies that have already commenced the registration process is Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS). RoS is working closely with FCS to identify common registration challenges early in the process, including clarification on boundaries, leased land, and access rights. Similarly, discussions with Scottish Water are well developed, and we are also collaborating with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

We have completed the first keeper-induced registration (KIR), the Georgian House on Charlotte Square, Edinburgh. We have also committed a small internal team to examine titles still held in the Sasines register to identify potential KIR issues across a variety of land and property types. This work will inform our policy development for the next consultation on KIR, due later this year.

Meeting the five-year ministerial commitment for registering publicly-owned land will be challenging, both for RoS and Scotland’s public bodies, but we are working hard to assist where necessary and we remain optimistic that, if public bodies continue to engage in the process, the target remains achievable.

Task force to lead on information hub

Deputy First Minister John Swinney has announced the development of a land and property information hub for Scotland.

The keeper will lead a task force to develop an online system that will allow users to find out comprehensive information about any piece of land or property in Scotland with a single enquiry. This will include statistics and information that people often need when making property decisions, such as school catchment areas, mining reports, flood risks and crime statistics.

The task force – which includes, among others, Unifi Scotland, Ordnance Survey, the Law Society of Scotland, and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors – will report back to the Deputy First Minister in July.

2012 Act Guidance

With the 2012 Act now business as usual, we continue to seek ways to support our stakeholders and improve our processes. As such, we have recently updated our guidance on mapping requirements. You can read all our guidance on our website at www.ros.gov.uk/services/registration

Register records 1,000th croft

A croft in Barvas on the Isle of Lewis has become the 1,000th croft to be registered on the Crofting Register.

Janet Egdell, operations director at RoS, said: “There are around 18,000 crofts in Scotland, so reaching the 1,000th registration in such a short timeframe is a remarkable achievement. This demonstrates the positive response we’ve had to the Crofting Register, and the excellent collaboration between ourselves, the Crofting Commission, and crofters.”

Introduced in 2012, the Crofting Register is the first official register to give crofters legal certainty over their crofts. More information is on our website at www.crofts.ros.gov.uk

Service standards update

To the end of week 51:

• 100% of Crofting Register applications were processed within three working days
• 100% of ARTL applications were processed within 24 hours
• 99% of new Land Register applications were entered on the application record within one working day