Online Annual Review 2005/6

Land Registration data electronically accessible

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE 5:  Make all Land Registry data electronically accessible to everyone

Land Register

With the last manual register being converted in 2003/4, the Land Register is now fully electronic. This enables our customers to access our records electronically through two main e-services – Land Registry Direct for our account-holding business customers and Land Register Online for the public. The Land Register now comprises 20.513 million registered titles.

Land Register Online

Aimed at the general public, Land register Online continues to grow in popularity and produced a fee income of £2,438,422. March 2006 saw the highest ever fee income for a single month of £286,074.

A significant factor in this growth has been the marketing campaign run by our Marketing and Communication Team. About 15 per cent of Land Register Online business now arrives through online advertising and this is increasing each month.

Land Register Online won the e-Government Innovation Award at the 2005 Good Communications Awards ceremony held at BAFTA, London, in November 2005.

Land Registry Direct

Aimed at property professionals, Land Registry Direct is our busiest electronic service by far.

• Organisations using it – 12,019 (up from 10,332 in the past six months).
• Individuals using it – 122,000 (up from 91,000).
• Transactions – 1,571,609 transactions in March 2006, representing fees of £3,096,210 – its highest ever monthly fee income.
• Fee income – £28,294,165 (up from £19,945,083).

The National Land Information Service (NLIS)

NLIS is a commercial service with three channels offering online conveyancing and other searches via the internet to solicitors and licensed conveyancers throughout England and Wales. The channels compete in the marketplace and differentiate their services by packaging and presenting the information to suit their target audience. The NLIS hub is the gateway for information and services from a number of data providers and also provides search tracking, billing and payment mechanisms. Land Registry has supported NLIS from its inception and we continue to be a major data provider to NLIS.

In March 2006 we saw 1,571,609 transactions, the highest ever number of transactions – representing fees of £423,358. The year ended with a total fee income of £4,205,079 (up 47.4 per cent).

The European Land Information Service (EULIS)

‘To provide easy worldwide access to European electronic land and property information in order to promote and underpin a single European property market’.

(Programme objective)

The EULIS project was instigated in 2002. A consortium of eight European land registries, including the Land Registry for England and Wales and Registers of Scotland, had by 2004 proved the concept, identified customer demand and produced a business case.

Land Registry has been one of the front runners in enhancing the existing EULIS website by developing online transactional features to be available in the summer of 2006. We continue to collaborate closely with our European partners in developing the EULIS portal (hosted by Norway) – a common gateway for all EULIS transactions.