Explanatory note
(This note is not part of the Regulations)
These Regulations amend the Community Charges (Registration) (Scotland) (No. 2) Regulations 1988 (S.I. 1988/1539) (“the 1988 Regulations”) which prescribe matters relating to the Community Charges Register (“the register”) which is maintained under the Abolition of Domestic Rates Etc. (Scotland) Act 1987 (“the 1987 Act”).
The amendments are primarily consequential upon changes made, since the 1988 Regulations came into force, to the 1987 Act by the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 (“the 1989 Act”) and to other Regulations made under the 1987 Act. The opportunity has also been taken to delete provisions in the 1988 Regulations which are now spent.
The amendments to the 1988 Regulations are described in regulation 3 of and Schedule 2 to these Regulations. The main matters reflected in these amendments are:—
provisions relating to persons undertaking a full-time course of nursing education (paragraphs 4, 5, 6, 8, 9(a)(ii), 9(b) and 1O(a) and (b) of Schedule 2). These amendments are consequential upon the provisions of the Personal Community Charge (Students) (Scotland) Regulations 1989 (S.I. 1989/32);
insertion of a new regulation 20A enabling a registration officer to supply relevant information (not being personal information) to anyone who requests it and to charge a fee (£2 per 1,000 register entries) for that supply;
the fact that women’s refuges cease to be liable for the collective community charge when they were made liable to rates by the Abolition of Domestic Rates (Domestic and Part Residential Subjects) (No. 2) (Scotland) Regulations 1989 (S.I. 1989/1477) (paragraph 9(c) of Schedule 2);
the exemption from the personal community charge of certain persons aged under 20 who are undertaking certain qualifying courses of education by the Personal Community Charge (Exemptions) (Qualifying Courses of Education) (Scotland) Regulations 1990 (S.I. 1990/1178) (paragraphs 9(a)(ii) and 1O(c)(ii) of Schedule 2);
the exclusion from the exemption for the personal community charge which applies to persons who are resident in premises subject to non-domestic rates of those who are resident in part residential subjects, by virtue of the amendment made to paragraph 12 of Schedule 1A to the 1987 Act by the 1989 Act (paragraphs 9(a)(iii) and 1O(c)(iii) of Schedule 2);
the exclusion from the part of the register available for public inspection of information which might identify the sex of a person by virtue of the amendment to section 20(2)(a)(ii) of the 1987 Act by the 1989 Act (paragraph 9(d) of Schedule 2).
Regulation 4 of these Regulations revokes a number of provisions in the 1988 Regulations which are now spent or which are no longer appropriate following changes in the law. In particular, account is taken of the changes in the definition and in the rules for the exemption of a person who is severely mentally impaired made by the Personal Community Charge (Exemption for the Severely Mentally Impaired) (Scotland) Regulations 1989 (S.I. 1989/2234) (regulation 4(e)).