The Keeper of the Registers of Scotland, Jennifer Henderson, today attended her first public speaking engagement since coming into post at the beginning of April this year. Her speech, to the Law Society of Scotland’s Conveyancing Conference, provided Jennifer with the opportunity to set out her vision for Registers of Scotland (RoS), as well as address some of the key issues that are important to RoS customers.

The keeper paid tribute to RoS’ rich history, noting too Scotland’s place at the heart of land registration as the home of the world’s oldest national land register. She also spoke about some of the key priorities contained within our 2018-21 Corporate Plan, as well as one significant work area that has been a source of concern and frustration for our customers.

Speaking at the The Studio at 67 Hope Street, Glasgow, Jennifer said:

“At the time of its inception, the sasine register was a bold and ambitious move to protect the citizen and ensure their rights to their land.

“We are being no less ambitious now. Our recently published Corporate Plan set out our strategic goals for 2018-21, and reiterated our commitment to becoming a fully digital business by 2020. RoS is undergoing a complete digital transformation, moving us from a historically paper-based organisation to one that always does everything digitally as its first option.”

The keeper also addressed a backlog of work that RoS is taking action to eradicate. RoS currently has almost 40,000 registration applications that fall outside of our service standards.

Offering an unequivocal apology, Jennifer continued:

“This is an unacceptable and unsustainable situation. It isn’t the standard of service that you should have to expect, and I understand the ongoing frustration it is causing. I’m sorry that things ever got to this stage.

“I offer a commitment to you – today – that we are going to address the problem. I am pleased that we now have a plan of action to make real, demonstrable progress in clearing it.”

RoS will be reporting regularly on our progress in clearing the backlog via our external communications, including our social media channels⁽³⁾.

Jennifer closed her speech by talking about the importance of ongoing engagement with customers saying “Our successes in RoS have been in no small part down to the time that has gone into having open dialogues with the people who use our services and integral to ensuring they are well designed. We will be working to engage with you and we want to hear your feedback”

• Keepers speech Law Society Conference
• A link to a video of the keeper’s speech will be available soon