Commentary on Sections Register of Community Interests in Abandoned, Neglected or Detrimental Land
192.The new section 97F of the 2003 Act provides for the creation of a Register of Community Interests in Abandoned, Neglected or Detrimental Land.
193.Subsection (1) requires the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland (“the Keeper”) to set up and maintain a Register of Community Interests in Abandoned or Neglected Land (“the Register”).
194.Subsection (2) specifies information and documents which must be kept in the Register and provides that these must be kept in a form convenient for public inspection.
195.Subsection (3) provides who must provide the information and documents which are to be recorded in the Register to the Keeper.
196.Subsections (4) and (5) allow a Part 3A community body to require that information or documentation which relates to the raising or expenditure of money to allow land to which the application relates to be used should be withheld from public inspection. Such information or documentation will not be entered in the Register. In terms of subsection (6), Ministers cannot require a Part 3A community body to provide such information or documentation. Subsections (7) and (8) provide that if a community body changes its name or the address of its registered or principal office, it must notify the Keeper of the change as soon as reasonably practicable after the change is made.
197.Subsection (9) confers powers on Ministers to make regulations to amend the information that is to be made publicly available in the Register, to amend the provision about the Part 3A community body requesting that certain information can be withheld from the Register and to amend the type of information that may be withheld.
198.Subsection (10) sets out the duties which are imposed on the Keeper. The Keeper must make the Register available at all reasonable times for inspection free of charge, ensure that members of the public are able to request copies of the entries on payment of a charge as may be set out by Ministers in regulations, and that if anyone requests a certified true copy of the original document this will be supplied on payment of such a charge.
199.Subsection (12) provides that the Keeper means the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland or such person as Ministers appoint to carry out the Keeper’s functions under Part 3A of the 2003 Act (and under subsection (13) different persons may be appointed in place of the Keeper for different purposes under Part 3A of the 2003 Act).