Letter from the Convener to Registers of Scotland, 15 November 2021
Thank you for your introductory letter of 30 August, your letter of 22 September containing your annual report and accounts, and your quarterly progress update of 29 October. Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding to you on each of these.
As I understand the Committee’s Clerk has explained, given the changes to ministerial portfolios, it was unclear where scrutiny of Registers of Scotland sat within the parliamentary committee remits. I am pleased however to say that this has now been resolved, and that Registers of Scotland will be within the remit of the Economy and Fair Work Committee.
As you say in your letter of 30 August, the previous committee was kept up to date on RoS’s activities by means of quarterly written updates. I can confirm we would be content for this practice to continue, along with any other additional ad-hoc updates you feel necessary.
I note that in the last session you gave evidence to the previous Committee annually on RoS’s activities. The Committee will shortly discuss and agree how it wishes to approach its scrutiny of RoS in this session, and we will consider whether to continue with the previous arrangement or look at an alternative method of scrutiny. I will contact you in due course to outline our approach once agreed.
Finally, thank you for your invitation to the Committee to visit RoS so that Members can see in person the work you do and the various digital systems under development. The Committee will consider this invitation along with our general approach. Again, I will contact you once this has been discussed with members.
Once again, please accept my apologies for the delay in responding to your letters. If you require any further information from the Committee at this time, please do not hesitate to contact the clerking team.
I look forward to working with you and your colleagues over the coming session.
Kind regards