The personal secretary to the Sheriff Principal will post the warrant to RoS and, upon receipt, a docquet will be appended to the warrant which is then signed by the Keeper or other authorised signatory. The wording of the docquet being: “Edinburgh, (date of registration). This Commission in favour of (name of appointee) as Sheriff Principal of (name of Sheriffdom), has been registered in the Chancery Office of the Registers of Scotland”
There is no affixing of the great seal to this type of warrant, and there is no issue of a commission in velum.
The Warrant is then returned by post to the personal secretary as being registered. A typed copy of the warrant, containing registration details, is retained by RoS and acts as the register.
In the past these commissions have made reference to the 'Chancery Office'. This reference is to a department which was a predecessor of CAJR. The Chancery Office ceased to exist as a result of internal reorganisation within RoS in 1949. Despite this, there are a number of documents which still make reference to the Chancery Office. The Scottish Government Civil Law and Legal System Division have been making changes to some documents (e.g. warrant appointing new Queens Counsel and warrant for Lord Justice Clerk) to remove the reference to the Chancery Office. A decision has been taken in conjunction with RoS that such references will be to the particular register that the warrants are written in (e.g. the Register of the Great Seal) rather than the Chancery Office. It is likely that the same approach will be taken with the Register of Sheriffs Commissions. Therefore the wording of the clause relating to RoS will be changed to "to be recorded in the Register of Sheriffs Commissions, within the space of three months from the date hereof.”