My third month at RoS has kept me busy, but has been marked by really positive interaction with customers and colleagues.

Close collaboration with customers and colleagues

It’s been a month marked by meeting customers and building stronger partnerships with other public bodies. The opportunity to speak at the Law Society of Scotland’s It’s the Law conference was incredibly valuable, and one of my personal highlights since joining RoS.

As my first public speaking engagement as Keeper, I used my speech at It’s the Law as a chance for our customers to put a face to the new Keeper, and also address some of the business areas that are of key importance to our customers, including our current registration arrear and our plans to eradicate it. You can read more about what I said on our website.

This news has also been discussed recently in the media; I’d like to reassure you by reiterating my commitment that we will work tirelessly to remedy this matter, and you can read more in my response.

I’m a firm believer in using honest conversations to build relationships and in the business world, provide effective products and services. I look forward to using this month’s conference as a springboard for a stronger dialogue on the things that matter to you, our customers.

I also met with a number of stakeholders at our customer insight workshop, hosted at Meadowbank House this month. We welcomed both customers and RoS staff, who during the event explored RoS user journeys and participated in a co-design session that provided positive feedback on how our processes can work to maximise the benefits for our customers. This workshop, plus other events like attending our stand at the Royal Highland Show, was a brilliant opportunity for face to face interactions, and they’re something I look forward to continuing moving forward as well.

I returned to the south of England in mid-June with Kenny Crawford, our Business Development and Information Director, to meet with Ordnance Survey. It was a real privilege to get a glimpse behind the scenes into the fascinating technical processes that go into producing their products, which play a major role in the work we do. It was also clear that we have many areas of common interest, which we’re all keen to explore further through close collaboration.

And finally, closer to home we’ve worked with colleagues in the Scottish Government to support the production of draft regulations for a new register, the Register of Controlling Interests. This register will provide details on companies and trusts that own property in Scotland, adding further transparency to the data we curate on land information in Scotland. The draft regulations are now out for consultation.

Business updates

In business updates, I’m pleased with the progress our teams have made in introducing our updated land registration application form. We reached the end of the three month transition period this month, and with the new form now standard operating procedure, we’re continuing with our ambition to offer streamlined and more efficient services to our customers.

This is also true of ScotLIS; this month the team have been hard at work and introduced a number of new features, which you can find out more about on our blog. We’re continuing to develop new features for both professionals and citizens. In addition, our data team released several reports this month, including our usual House Price Index statistics, and our Property Market Report, which identifies and analyses property trends from 2007-8 to 2017-18.

Throughout the summer and beyond we’ll be continuing to meet with customers and deliver service improvements. I look forward to sharing these with you next month.

Find out more!

Follow the team via @RegistersOfScot on Twitter and on Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube for more updates. Want to comment? Let us know below!