Timeliness and Punctuality

The data on community ownership as at December of 2018 were published almost 12 months after the end of 2018. The length of time taken to publish the 2018 data following the end of the year was due to the matching process that took place with Registers of Scotland. The matching took place between January and October 2019. As all assets that were then believed to be community owned, as well as assets that came into community ownership during 2018, had to be matched. This process took much longer than it does now when only assets from one year have to be matched.

In addition, public sector organisations which are subject to community asset transfer requests are required to publish information on any assets transferred on a financial year as opposed to a calendar year basis. To reduce respondent burden the data on asset transfers are gathered after the end of the financial year in March of each year.

The matching of assets believed to have been transferred into community ownership in the previous year take place between May and September of the following year This includes checking the status of known assets where their registration on the Land Register had not been completed when the matching for the data included in the previous edition of the Community Ownership in Scotland publication series was completed.

As the number of new assets to be matched each year is lower than the initial matching exercise the time lag before each new edition of the Community Ownership in Scotland publication is released has decreased. New editions of the Community Ownership in Scotland publication series are released in the Autumn of the year after the year the publication covers.