2018: keep up the momentum

As we see in the New Year, RoS intends to maintain the momentum with which we ended 2017. We will continue to bring in changes that will improve the efficiency of our business, and better help us to support all of our customers. We started early, with changes brought in at the start of December to the way that we let customers know about rejections.

We know that rejections remain a frustration for our customers, and that’s why we continue to work to reduce their number. As well as updating our Knowledge Base with comprehensive information on registration, we are moving towards automated processes, which are intended to eliminate errors. 

In December we also updated our rejections notification process for first registration applications received as of 5 December. Customers will now receive an email letting them know a rejection has occurred, which will contain the reason and explanation within the body of the email. This new format will also be mobile and tablet friendly.

The design of the paper “invoice” customers receive with returned deeds will also change. As part of this, the new version will now contain the agent reference you have provided to RoS.

We will no longer be sending paper rejection letters with deeds. However, this new invoice design will indicate if a rejection has occurred, and refer you to the email you have already received. In the rare event your application does not contain a notification email address, you will still receive a paper explanation with the returned deeds.

We will continue to visit firms and involve our customers in future evaluation of these and other changes. If you would like to be involved directly, or have any questions about the changes, please contact rejectionssupport@ros.gov.uk or your customer relationship manager.

Developing ScotLIS

It’s been more than two months since the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland (RoS) announced the official launch of ScotLIS, Scotland’s Land Information Service. Our innovative new service has continued to grow and expand since then, with over 11,500 citizens and 4,000 business users already utilising the service.

We will continue to work both internally and with our stakeholders to gather feedback and build on the service’s initial success. New developments will remain a regular feature, with short-cycle sprints continuing the process of improvement. This allows us to respond effectively to user needs and deliver valuable changes frequently. There is a dedicated feature updates page on ScotLIS for business users, so you can keep an eye out for the enhancements the team are making based on your feedback.

Current improvements include exploring ways to make ScotLIS maps more dynamic and interactive, and options around how to provide access to online Land Register information for members of the public. We’re also working with other public sector and government organisations to see how we might incorporate their datasets into ScotLIS, so that it offers a truly unique, useful and detailed view of land and property data in Scotland.

Going forward

As well as embedding new services, we’ve been looking ahead to the future of our organisation and industry this month. In our 2016 Digital Consultation, we outlined our proposed plans for the digital future of land registration in Scotland. As part of these advancements, over the past weeks we’ve been working even more closely with stakeholders and the Scottish Government to lay the groundwork for improving efficiency in these services in 2018.