Land Registry and highlights of the year About Land Registry Land Registry’s mission is to provide the world’s best service for guaranteeing ownership of land and facilitating property transactions. Our principal aims are:
- to maintain and develop a stable and effective land registration system throughout England and Wales as the cornerstone for the creation and free movement of interests in land
- on behalf of the Crown, to guarantee title to registered estates and interests in land for the whole of England and Wales
- to provide ready access to up-to-date and guaranteed land information enabling confident dealings in property and security of title
- to provide a Land Charges and Agricultural Credits service.
Her Majesty’s Land Registry (Land Registry), established in 1862, is a government department, an executive agency and a trading fund that makes no call on monies voted by Parliament. By statute, it is required to ensure that its income from fees covers all of its expenditure. Land Registry comprises the Registration of Title Department, dealing with its main business, and the much smaller Land Charges and Agricultural Credits Departments.
The Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs and Lord Chancellor is the Minister responsible for Land Registry. This is the Chief Land Registrar’s formal account to the Minister of Land Registry’s performance against each of the objectives and key performance targets set by the Minister for 2005/6.
The Chief Land Registrar is the Head of the Department, full Accounting Officer and Chief Executive of the executive agency. He is a statutory office holder and is responsible for conducting the whole business of land registration in England and Wales. He reports to the Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs and Lord Chancellor.
Land Registry operates through 24 offices located throughout England and Wales, a London-based Head Office and offices in Plymouth housing the Land Charges and Agricultural Credits Departments and our Information Services Directorate.
The Land Register, comprising over 20 million titles, has been open to public inspection since December 1990.
Highlights of the year - Key performance targets achieved
- Prime Minister’s 2005 e-services target achieved
- Land Register now more than 20 million titles
- Land Registry’s database wins recognition as the world’s largest online transaction-processing database
- New rules introduced to make leases simpler
- Land Register Online wins major web award
- Offices retain ISO 14001 accreditation
- More than 5 per cent added to freehold registered area of England and Wales.
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