Moveable Transactions Bill: Get involved

The Moveable Transactions (Scotland) Bill seeks to modernise and reform Scots Law in relation to security over and assignation of moveable property. The Bill also seeks to remove the need for intimation to the debtor when assigning a claim, as assignations can be registered in the Register of Assignations.

The Bill, which was passed by the Scottish Parliament on 4 May 2023, will create a new form of security over moveable property called the statutory pledge. This will be registered in the Register of Statutory Pledges, removing the need to be physically delivered to the creditor. The Bill will allow parties and Scottish businesses to raise finance on moveable property in Scotland and remove a competitive disadvantage for Scottish businesses in comparison to their English counterparts. 

Members of our Banking, Company and Insolvency Law committee have been leading on the Society’s responses to the Bill, including issuing briefings to MSPs at Stage 1 and 3 and amendments at Stage 2. We also responded to the call for evidence on the Bill in September 2022, and have also engaged extensively with the Registers of Scotland as part of their research into the development of the registers and their prototypes.

Registers of Scotland(RoS) plan to carry out testing and user research on the register prototypes this year and are keen to engage with members of the legal profession in this important work, including those from smaller and high street firms.

RoS is keen to engage with members on the following.

• user testing  on assignations, pledges, and interactions with other rights in security
• testing the functionalities of the registers, such as registration and search

If you would like to be involved in testing the functionality of the registers, please contact Registers of Scotland Senior Product Manager Catherine Haig the at catherine.haig@ros.gov.uk

In addition, RoS is hosting a stakeholder event on Wednesday, 7 June, 10am-1pm at Registers of Scotland - Edinburgh office, Meadowbank House, London Road.

The Moveable Transaction Show Day will be an interactive workshop for a maximum of 20 attendees and will include demos of the registers themselves as well as a guided walk through of the service blueprints for both registers.

If you are interested in attending, please contact Catherine Haig at catherine.haig@ros.gov.uk