Registers of Scotland Fee Review (2020)

In October 2020, Registers of Scotland (RoS) launched a public consultation to seek views on its proposals to increase some of its statutory fees to return it to a cost-neutral position. The consultation ran from 26 October 2020 to 24 December 2020. It was hosted on the Scottish Government’s Citizen Space consultation hub, where people could post their responses. Announcements were posted on the RoS website, by email, and via RoS social media channels to confirm that the consultation was live and to encourage responses while it was live.

In total, 44 responses to the consultation were received from individuals and organisations across the public and private sectors; nine responded on behalf of organisations and 35 as individuals. The consultation included eight question of which seven included a yes/no response.

There was widespread support for the proposals. The question: ‘Do you agree that rejection fees should be removed?’ received the most positive response with more than 90% of respondents agreeing with the proposed change. The question which elicited a significant number of neutral or negative responses was: ‘Do you agree that Registers of Scotland should review its statutory fees on an annual basis?’ with only 55% in favour. The remainder of the questions which included yes/no responses received positive responses of between 75% to 88%.

The consultation responses have been carefully considered and published. Only answers from respondents who gave permission have been published. However, all responses are included in the analysis of this consultation.

The majority of respondents supported the proposals to alter RoS’s statutory fees. As a result, a Scottish Statutory Instrument has been laid in the Scottish Parliament and will go through the parliamentary process.