Registers of Scotland is an Executive Agency responsible for registering a number of legal documents, including the Land Register, and making them available to the public. There is a drive to make their data available electronically and January 2001 saw the launch of the first phase of Registers Direct. The second phase, which will enable remote access to Land Register data will be launched in the autumn and a pilot scheme for the automated registration of title to land is currently running.
This paper is issued alongside the Scotland Bill (Bill 115, ISBN 9780215557414, and its associated explanatory notes, Bill 115-EN, ISBN 9780215546548) which implements the changes to legislation recommended in the final report of the Commission on Scottish Devolution (chairman Sir Kenneth Calman) - "Serving Scotland better: Scotland and the United Kingdom in the 21st Century" (available at http://www.scotlandoffice.gov.uk/scotlandoffice/files/Calman%20report.pdf). The Commission's central view was that Scotland should be responsible for raising more of its revenue, and the Government proposes a transfer of fiscal power so that the Scottish Parliament will have powers to raise some 35 per cent of its own budget (the current level is 15 per cent). Proposals include: a Scottish income tax to replace part of the UK income tax; the devolution of land tax and landfill tax; the power to create of devolve other taxes to the Scottish Parliament; extensive new borrowing powers; a Scottish cash reserve to manage fluctuations around devolved tax receipts; a seat for Scottish ministers on a new UK-Scottish tax committee. This paper also outlines the Government's response in other policy areas: strengthening relations between Parliaments and Governments; improving the constitutional framework; administration of elections; policing and justice; health and public safety; business, corporate affairs and academic research; environment and rural affairs; social security and welfare reform; charities; the Scottish Government; and technical amendments to the Scotland Act 1998.
The UK Government is undertaking a major cross-government programme of analysis prior to the referendum on Scottish independence in 2014. The aim is to provide a comprehensive and detailed analysis of Scotland's place in the UK. This paper, the first of a series to be published in 2013 and 2014, examines the UK's constitutional set-up and the legal implications of independence. The UK Government is convinced that the current devolution offers the best for Scotland: the Scottish Parliament and Government are empowered to take decisions on a range of domestic policy areas - such as health, education, policing - while Scotland continues to benefit from decisions made for the UK as a whole - defence and security, foreign representation, economic affairs. Independence is very different to devolution. Based on independent expert opinion (published as Annex A), the paper concludes that if there were to be a vote in favour of leaving the UK, Scotland would become an entirely new state whilst the remainder of the UK would continue as before, retaining the rights and obligations of the UK as it currently stands. Any separation would have to be negotiated between both governments. Legal and practical implications of independence, both at home and abroad, are addressed. An independent Scotland would have to apply to and/or negotiate to become a member of whichever international organisations it wished to join, including the EU and NATO. Scotland would also have to work through its positions on thousands of international treaties to which the UK is currently party.
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