Freedom of Information (FOI)

The Keeper of the Registers of Scotland

GUIDE TO INFORMATION AVAILABLE THROUGH THE MODEL PUBLICATION SCHEME 2012

The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (the Act) requires Scottish public authorities to produce and maintain a publication scheme. Authorities are under a legal obligation to:

  • publish the classes of information that they make routinely available
  • tell the public how to access the information and what it might cost.

The Keeper of the Registers of Scotland has adopted the Model Publication Scheme 2012 produced by the Scottish Information Commissioner. She has approved this scheme until 31 May 2016.

You can see this scheme on our website at www.ros.gov.uk/foi or by contacting us at this address:

Customer Services Centre
Registers of Scotland
Meadowbank House
153 London Road
Edinburgh
EH8 7AU

The purpose of this Guide to Information is to:

  • allow you to see what information is available (and what is not available) in relation to each class,
  • state what charges may be applied
  • explain how you can find the information easily
  • provide contact details for enquiries and to get help with accessing the information
  • explain how to request information we hold that has not been published

Availability and formats
The information we publish through the model scheme is, wherever possible, available on our website. We offer alternative arrangements for people who do not want to, or cannot, access the information online or by inspection at our premises. For example, we can usually arrange to send information to you in paper copy (although there may be a charge for this).

Exempt information
We will publish the information we hold that falls within the classes of information below. If a document contains information that is exempt under Scotland’s freedom of information laws (for example sensitive personal information or a trade secret), we may remove or redact the information before publication but we will explain why.

Copyright
We are content to let people use and reproduce most of the Crown copyright material that we produce (including material from our registers) free of charge, in any format or medium, provided they reproduce it accurately and do not use it in a misleading context.  We simply ask that they should acknowledge it as Crown copyright.

However, there are a few exceptions to this general position, so please look for special copyright notices on our material that show what we expect and what we ask you to do if you want to reproduce relevant material.  Examples of these special notices are:

"© Crown copyright 2012. This document (excluding the logo of the Registers of Scotland) may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium for research, private study or for internal circulation within an organisation.  This is subject to it being reproduced accurately and not used in a misleading context.  The material must be acknowledged as Crown copyright and the title of the document specified.  For any other use of this material, please apply to the Registers of Scotland for a licence, by writing to Business Development, Registers of Scotland, Meadowbank House, 153 London Road, Edinburgh EH8 7AU."

"© Crown copyright 2012. Applications to reproduce the material in this document should be addressed to Business Development, Registers of Scotland, Meadowbank House, 153 London Road, Edinburgh EH8 7AU."

Another exception to our general position relates to our registration application forms if you intend to include these forms in your own software packages which you sell to solicitors and others.

If you wish to reproduce material which carries special notices like the ones in our examples above, or if you would like to replicate our official forms in a software package, you can do so only under licence from us.  Please contact our Business Development section at Meadowbank House 153 London Road Edinburgh EH8 7AU or phone 0131 659 6111.

Charges

This section explains when we may make a charge for our publications and how any charge will be calculated.

There is no charge to view information on our website or at our premises except where there is a statutory fee, for example for access to our registers. You can see a list of our statutory fees here: http://www.ros.gov.uk/fees/fee_order.html

We may charge for providing information to you e.g., photocopying and postage, but we will charge you no more than it actually costs us to do so. We will always tell you what the cost is before providing the information to you.

Our photocopying charge per sheet of paper is shown in the tables below:

Black and white photocopying

Type

Size of paper

Pence per sheet of paper

Black + white

A4

10p

Colour

A4

30p


Information provided on CD-Rom will be charged at £1.00 per disc.

Postage costs will be recharged at the rate we paid to send the information to you.

When providing copies of pre-printed publications, we will charge no more than the cost per copy of the total print run.  

We do not pass on any other costs to you in relation to our published information.

Contact us

You can contact us for assistance with any aspect of this publication scheme:
By Post:

Registers of Scotland
Customer Services Centre
Meadowbank House
153 London Road
Edinburgh
EH8 7AU

By email: customer.services@ros.gov.uk

By phone: 0845 607 0161

We will also be pleased to advise you how to ask for information that we do not publish or how to complain if you are dissatisfied with any aspect of this publication scheme.

The classes of information that we publish

We publish information that we hold within the following classes. Once information is published under a class we will continue to make it available for the current and previous two financial years.

Where information has been updated or superseded, only the current version will be available. If you would like to see previous versions, you may make a request to us for that information.