Chief Land Registrar's Report

Environmental Performance

We are committed to improving our environmental performance at all our business units. We were very pleased to achieve ISO 14001 certification at a further four offices including Headquarters during the past year and the Local Office for Lancashire retained its accreditation. We are on target to attain certification at all remaining offices by 2003-04.

In preparation for certification, all business units have developed travel plans and introduced waste management systems. It is now standard practice to commission BREEAM assessments, for all new office buildings and appropriate major refurbishment projects. BREEAM is a tool that allows the owners, users and designers of buildings to review and improve environmental performance throughout the life of a building. We also achieved a 'Very Good' rating for the design of our recently constructed office building in Nottingham.

We have made a planning application to support the potential development of a site on Plymouth's International Business Park for the expansion of our computer services operation. The proposed three storey building on the 71/2 acre site could house some 500 staff.