Unions had been formed by the grouping parishes surrounding towns in which a workhouse was situated without reference to geographical county boundaries.
Registration counties were formed for statistical purposes in a similar manner by the grouping of poor law unions.
The Act provided that in future all writs relating to lands and heritages in Scotland should be recorded in "presentment books", with a different series for each county.
For the purposes of the Act the Barony and Regality of Glasgow and the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright were to be treated as counties.
The implementation was completed on 1 April 2003 when the final tranche of registration counties were operational.