The Land Register is designed to be definitive as to the nature and extent of title. Section 5 of the Land Registration (Scotland) Act 1979 requires the Keeper to complete registration in respect of a property title by making up a title sheet for it in the Land Register. The content of the title sheet is set out in section 6 of that act and includes a description of the property, the names of the proprietors, details of any charges over the property and title conditions and rights affecting the property. The title sheet also includes a title plan on which the extent of the registered property is shown. The Keeper creates a title sheet for a property based upon the deed submitted for registration, accompanying documentation including the application form, and where the property is being registered in the Land Register for the first time, prior deeds relating to that property as recorded in the General Register of Sasines.

A learning disability liaison nurse will help support people with a learning disability to access acute health services and promote appropriate health care for the individual.

They will work with the individual, their families or carers and health staff to promote positive experiences, outcomes and co-ordination of care for the person.

Pilot visits are anticipated to commence in May 2009 with the visit schedule fully operational from September 2009. All acute hospitals will receive at least one announced and one unannounced visit within a three year cycle.

The Healthcare Environment Inspectorate will require NHS boards to publish an improvement plan to ensure all necessary action is taken. There is a clear intention to ensure rigorous follow-up on findings and recommendations through scrutiny and challenge of NHS board action plans and on the basis of further announced and unannounced visits to provide necessary levels of assurance and accountability. The chief inspector will be able to raise specific concerns directly with Scottish ministers and an escalation process will be in place.

The Healthcare Environment Inspectorate will publish its detailed operational arrangements for undertaking inspections when these have been finalised following the appointment of the chief inspector.

The Keeper creates a title sheet for a property based upon the deed submitted for registration, accompanying documentation including the application form, and where the property is being registered in the Land Register for the first time, prior deeds for that property as recorded in the General Register of Sasines. The Keeper may also request additional evidence from the applicant that he considers necessary to evidence the legal title of the property in respect of which registration is being sought. If the information provided and the examination of title by the Keeper does not reveal any legal or title discrepancy, a title sheet will be completed without exclusion of indemnity.

The General Register of Sasines is a register of deeds in which conveyancing deeds are lodged. The fact that a deed appears in the General Register of Sasines does not guarantee its validity, merely that it is competent to be recorded. The state and quality of a title to a property must be deduced by examination of the relevant deeds relating to that property as recorded in this register.

By contrast, the Land Register is a register of title whereby title flows from the entry for a property in the Register. Section 5 of the Land Registration (Scotland) Act 1979 requires the Keeper to complete registration in respect of a property title by making up a title sheet for it in the Land Register. The title sheet includes a description of the property, the names of the proprietors, details of any charges over the property and title conditions and rights affecting the property. The title sheet also includes a title plan on which the extent of the registered property is shown. Except for over-riding interests as defined in section 28 of the Land Registration (Scotland) Act 1979, the title sheet is determinative of title. (An overriding interest is, in relation to an interest in land, a right or interest that does not have to be constituted in a conveyancing deed, for example certain types of access right.)

Where the Land Register is inaccurate (whether due to an error by the Keeper or for any other reason) a person may apply for rectification of the Register. The circumstances in which the Keeper may rectify the Register to remove an inaccuracy are set out in section 9 of the Land Registration (Scotland) Act 1979.

Subsection (1) of section 9 confers on the Keeper a general power to rectify any inaccuracy in the register, either on his own initiative, or on being requested to do so. It also requires the Keeper to rectify an inaccuracy on being so ordered by a court or the Lands Tribunal for Scotland.

Subsection (3) of section 9 limits both the Keeper''s power to rectify the Land Register and also the power of the court or the Lands Tribunal for Scotland to order the Keeper to rectify. If rectification of the Land Register would prejudice a proprietor who is in possession of the registered title the circumstances in which rectification is permissible are limited. These are: where everyone whose interests are likely to be affected by the rectification have agreed; where the rectification is to note an overriding interest (a form of right that does not require to be constituted in a conveyancing deed such as certain forms of access right); where the inaccuracy has been caused by fraud or carelessness, or where the title is not fully guaranteed (this can happen where there is an element of uncertainty in the underlying title).

If rectification is not legally permissible and the person seeking rectification has suffered loss as a result of that they may be entitled to be indemnified by the Keeper in respect of that loss. If rectification is legally permissible, a person who suffers loss as a result of the rectification may equally be entitled to be indemnified by the Keeper.

The entitlement to indemnity is provided by section 12 of the Land Registration (Scotland) Act 1979 and is subject to a number of exceptions. Examples include where the Keeper has expressly excluded his indemnity when registering the title or where specified matters could not have been known to the Keeper, and on occasion the applicant, when an application was presented for registration.

Where the Keeper refuses an application to rectify, that decision may be challenged in a court or the Lands Tribunal for Scotland.

A copy of the Health Protection Scotland (HPS) report has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 48082).

The regional inspector posts were advertised on 24 April 2009 and associate inspector posts were advertised the week beginning Monday 29 April 2009.