Official Report 743KB pdf
Moveable Transactions (Scotland) Act 2023 Amendment Regulations 2025 [Draft]
Registers of Scotland (Fees and Plain Copies) Miscellaneous Amendments Order 2025 [Draft]
Moveable Transactions (Forms) (Scotland) Regulations 2024 (SSI 2024/379)
Moveable Transactions (Register of Assignations and Register of Statutory Pledges Rules) (Scotland) Regulations 2024 (SSI 2024/381)
Our second item of business is further consideration of four Scottish statutory instruments. We have two draft affirmative instruments: the Moveable Transactions (Scotland) Act 2023 Amendment Regulations 2025 and the Registers of Scotland (Fees and Plain Copies) Miscellaneous Amendments Order 2025. We also have two negative instruments: the Moveable Transactions (Forms) (Scotland) Regulations 2024 and the Moveable Transactions (Register of Assignations and Register of Statutory Pledges Rules) (Scotland) Regulations 2024.
Following last week’s meeting, the minister wrote to the committee, which members found incredibly helpful. The minister’s letter of 31 January is included at annex C to paper 3.
I welcome our witnesses: Ivan McKee, the Minister for Public Finance; Camilo Arredondo and Rob McConnell, from the Scottish Government legal directorate; Jill Clark, team leader of the private law unit at the Scottish Government; and David Robertson, policy lead at Registers of Scotland.
This item is an opportunity to further discuss all four instruments with the minister and his officials before moving on to the formal procedure at the next agenda item. There is no need for motions to be moved under this item; that will happen at a later stage.
Although I am keen to hear the minister’s views on the success of Manchester, I ask him to give us a short opening statement about the subordinate legislation that is before us.
Thank you, convener, and good morning, committee. I thank you for the further opportunity to give evidence on the four SSIs relating to the Moveable Transactions (Scotland) Act 2023. I hope that my letter of 31 January was helpful to the committee in providing not only information but reassurance on the range of issues that the committee raised. I put on record my thanks to officials for putting together a comprehensive and thoroughly helpful letter in a short period of time.
It is probably worth highlighting the following point on privacy. It is important to recognise that public registration is the policy solution to help businesses in Scotland by offering a simple and efficient alternative to the outdated and inflexible existing law. That said, both the act and the rules take measures, through restricted searching and appropriate redaction, to ensure that that personal information is not disclosed in a way that could enable fraud.
With regard to corrections, it is important that the registers have a utility for businesses and are easy to use. That must, of course, be balanced with the utility of them being accurate and up-to-date. We think that we have struck the right balance and my letter sets out in some detail how corrections can be made to the registers. It also sets out that it will always be in someone’s interest for erroneous or out-of-date information to be corrected.
Fraud is a legitimate concern and I hope that the details contained within my letter provide some comfort. Checks are in place to minimise the likelihood of the registers being used fraudulently.
I am happy to take any further questions on the instruments.
I will start with a question to seek clarity in relation to not-for-profit advisers. We have clarified that the act allows not-for-profit advisers to search either of the registers without incurring a fee, but your letter of 31 January—which was very comprehensive, and we thank you for it—indicates that you will not define what not-for-profit advisers are, because you do not believe that many of them will seek to search the registers and that if they do, you would come up with a definition at that point.
If you do not have a definition, how will you decide if an organisation is not-for-profit, what will the criteria be, and how will such organisations be aware that they can search the registers without a fee? If you do not have a definition, how will you decide whether you need a definition due to the number of such organisations coming forward to search the registers?
I will let officials comment on that shortly. We are probably talking about a small number of well-known organisations, and that should be manageable with what we have in place. The idea is that, as it is probably relatively clear who the term covers, this is the most effective and efficient way to proceed, rather than spending a lot of time and effort trying to define that term.
The minister is correct in saying that we do not expect the number of organisations that rely on the provision to be very large at all. There could be an issue with defining those types of bodies, as the definition provided might not cover parties that would ideally have been covered. The Government’s position is that, given that the number of organisations caught by the provision will likely be negligible, we should monitor progress and how the registers are used over time and then use that information to make an informed decision on perhaps—or perhaps not—adding a definition to the regulations in future.
Minister, you will be pleased to know that your letter covered most of the points that members wanted to raise. I will bring in Lorna Slater.
Minister, thank you for coming back to the committee. Last week, my questions were about the particular SSI on the registers. Thank you for the reassurance in your letter on the mechanisms for correction, accuracy and third-party data and for accepting that no system is perfect or free from error and that bad actors can abuse any system. I am content to support the progression of the instruments, but will the minister or his officials commit to coming back to the committee or its successor in 18 months to two years, to provide an update on how things have gone, whether the corrections procedure is working and how many people have required to use it?
Yes, we are happy to do that. Rob, is there anything on timelines for coming back to the committee in the act or the regulations?
The act provides for the Government to report to the Parliament five years after it fully comes into force, which will hopefully be on 1 April. That will be a large, encompassing report on how the entire regime is working in reality and whether there are areas that could be looked at again.
It would be interesting to know whether you would be willing to come back in 18 months to 2 years, to give us an interim update.
We would be very happy to do that. It is good to have that backstop set at five years, but you are right, and we would be very happy to come back to the committee in what will be the next session with an update on where we are at that stage to allow the committee to ask any further questions at that point.
11:30
To the relief of my colleagues, I will not mention flocks of sheep or combine harvesters today.
I place on record the fact that we got an eight-page response from you and that it was issued within 48 hours of your appearance at the committee last week and responded to points that were raised then. That excellent work is an exemplar of how ministers should behave.
Thank you. As I said at the outset, that is all down to my officials and I agree that it is an exemplar of how the civil service should work.
We will end on that positive point.
There are no further questions from members, so we move to formal consideration of the motion to approve the draft Moveable Transactions (Scotland) Act 2023 Amendment Regulations 2025. I remind members that only they and the minister may take part at this point and I invite the minister to move motion S6M-15910.
Motion moved,
That the Economy and Fair Work Committee recommends that the Moveable Transactions (Scotland) Act 2023 Amendment Regulations 2025 [draft] be approved.—[Ivan McKee]
Motion agreed to.
We move to our next item of business, on the draft Registers of Scotland (Fees and Plain Copies) Miscellaneous Amendments Order 2025. Once again, only members and the minister may take part and I again invite the minister to speak to and move motion S6M-15911.
Motion moved,
That the Economy and Fair Work Committee recommends that the Registers of Scotland (Fees and Plain Copies) Miscellaneous Amendments Order 2025 [draft] be approved.—[Ivan McKee]
Motion agreed to.
A report of the committee’s consideration of both draft instruments will be prepared and published. I invite members to delegate responsibility to me, as convener, to agree the committee’s report.
Members indicated agreement.
Our next item is consideration of two negative SSIs, the Movable Transactions (Forms) (Scotland) Regulations 2024 and the Movable Transactions (Register of Assignations and Register of Statutory Pledges Rules) (Scotland) Regulations 2024. The committee is invited to note both instruments. Are members happy to do so?
Members indicated agreement.
That brings us to the end of today’s evidence session. I thank the minister and his officials for joining us.
We now move into private session.
11:32 Meeting continued in private until 12:02.