Chamber and committees

I call Michelle Thomson.

I have not been here for as long as the minister, but is that how LCMs previously tended to operate—would the process have involved negotiation and consensus? We had fewer divisions on LCMs than we have had in more recent times.

We recognise that the environment for LCMs has changed quite a bit in recent years.

The committee welcomes the evidence that we have heard this morning, and we will consider a report in due course. As no members have any other questions, I will bring this evidence session to an end. Thank you for attending, minister.

Thank you.

Is there any advantage in completing the land register over the sasine register? This is a question that we have discussed before. The policy, which was launched in 2014, was to complete the land register by 2024, but it has become clear that that target is not going to be reached any time soon and, from previous discussions, it appears that “any time soon” might well mean “possibly never”. The ambition now in the delivery plan is

“to deliver the benefits of a complete land register”,

but the two systems are still operating. Can you update us on where we are with that?

Secondly, there has been, if I am correct, a change to the way in which properties are registered, with the KPI on property addresses being dropped and the one on land mass being retained. Did that happen quite recently? Can you explain why that decision was made and what its impact will be?

I am going to change the order of questions a little bit. I will ask the next question, which is on rejections of applications.

There is a commitment to not reject applications after three months, unless it is legally impossible not to do so. However, the number of rejections of applications over three months old has steadily increased. It looks like there was a slight drop in the most recent year, but there has been an increase over the years, so that more than 4,000 applications over three months old have been rejected. What are the reasons for that? You have indicated that you think that it might be a result of solicitor inaccuracies. How do you resolve the issues that are causing the problems?

Just to add to that before you come in, Chris, it would be interesting to hear why you think the number has increased year on year. In 2018, it was 476 but in the most recent year it was 1,042. I understand that you offer webinars and are trying to educate people on how to use the system, but the numbers are still going up rather than reducing.

There would be instances when the UK Government would consult the Scottish Government but would not necessarily come to Scottish Parliament committees. You are suggesting that that is because that scenario would come around in extreme and rare circumstances.

Agenda item 2 is consideration of a legislative consent memorandum on the Electronic Trade Documents Bill. This United Kingdom Government bill, which was introduced in the House of Lords on 12 October, changes the law on devolved matters.

I welcome to the meeting Richard Lochhead, Minister for Small Business, Innovation and Trade. He is joined by Chris Nicholson, solicitor and head of the constitutional reform and external affairs branch, legal services directorate, and David Barnes, deputy director, trade policy division, international trade and investment directorate, both from the Scottish Government.

I invite the minister to make a brief opening statement on the Scottish Government’s position.

Before I bring in Graham Simpson, who has a supplementary question, I have a question. In your answer to Jamie Halcro Johnston, you said that the backlog would be cleared completely by the end of the corporate plan period. However, in statements you made in 2022, you said that there is not a strict definition of a backlog and that there will always be some unresolved cases. What is the timeframe for dealing with an unresolved case? Are there service standards that people can expect you to meet? Will there always be a backlog, or do we have different understandings of what a backlog is? What are you aiming to achieve by 2027?

Thank you.