Services For Public Authorities

Whose Land Scotland can assist public authorities, including councils, health service trusts and utilities service providers, to modernise the titles to the land they own. We can help them to establish correct legal boundaries and assist with Land Registration applications, putting their landholdings onto the 21st century OS based and publicly accessible Land Register of Scotland. And we can help them establish who owns land needed for new projects.

Why Do Public Authorities Need This Service?

Public authorities often have varied and diverse land portfolios, with land vesting in the organisation over many years and from many different sources. Often land has been passed on through local authority reorganisation or the transfer of statutory functions. In many cases it is not easy to determine what is still owned and by who, nor what the correct legal boundaries may now be. A public authority’s legal title to its land may not therefore be easy to establish in some cases.

Much publicly owned land in Scotland is still not registered in the OS based Land Register of Scotland, so its extent and current owner is often not publicly accessible. The Scottish Ministers asked public sector bodies in Scotland to register their land in the Land Register of Scotland by 2024. However the total land area registered in the Land Register is (at the end of 2024) still only approximately 60%. We can assist public authorities to register their land and buildings, making ownerships accessible and transparent – and ending time consuming hunts for old title deeds!

How We Can Help

We can find you the titles to your authority’s land, assist you to establish correct legal boundaries, and submit voluntary Land Registration applications.

Public authorities often also need to establish who owns land they may need for new projects. We can help with this to support land acquisition requirements.