FOI Release: Register of Persons Holding a Controlled Interest in Land (RCI) Enquiry

FOI reference: CW-2024-487
Date received: 15 September 2024
Date responded: 14 October 2024

Information requested:

In relation to security declarations recorded on the Register of Persons Holding a Controlled Interest in Land (RCI)

1. Are these security declarations public documents? Can I access them?
2. How many security declarations were in force as of the 1st of May 2024?
3. For which, if any, parcels of land were security declarations in force as of the 1st of May 2024?

Response:

Regulation 16 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2016 (Register of Persons Holding a Controlled Interest in Land) Regulations 2021 provides for an associate (who is an individual) of a recorded person to make a security declaration to the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland, where the inclusion in the RCI of one or more of the associate’s required details would put the associate, or an individual connected with the associate, at risk of violence, abuse, threat of violence or abuse, or intimidation.

A security declaration is over a person, rather than land, so cannot be used to prevent the registration of a piece of land in the RCI. Further, a security declaration being made does not prevent a property being searchable on the RCI - the RCI is publicly searchable.

The RCI can be searched by:

• an associate's unique reference number (ARN)
• a person's name
• an organisation name
• an organisation's registered number
• a property postcode, address or description
• a title number

In answer to your questions, using your numbering:

1. A security declaration and the supporting evidence are not public documents, so it is not possible for you to access a security declaration nor search for it in the register. You can search the register via the options outlined above.
2. One security declaration was in force as of 1 May 2024.
3. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this case we consider this information to be exempt information under Section 30 (c) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (Prejudice to effective conduct of public affairs).

The reason this exemption applies is that the disclosure of this information via FOISA would risk the identification of the individual whom the security declaration is over, undermining the Keeper’s legal obligations under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2016 (Register of Persons Holding a Controlled Interest in Land) Regulations 2021.

This is a qualified exemption; therefore the information must be disclosed unless the public interest in disclosing the information is outweighed by the public interest in maintaining the exemption.

We acknowledge that there is a public interest in openness and transparency within the public sector. However, in this instance we believe that this is outweighed by the public interest in ensuring the effectiveness of the security declaration process as part of the Keeper’s legal obligations under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2016 (Register of Persons Holding a Controlled Interest in Land) Regulations 2021. These are designed to protect individuals at risk of violence, abuse, threat of violence or abuse, or intimidation, and to disclose this information in response to a FOISA request would run contrary to these aims.