The Legal Services Commission has become the first of Land Registry’s central government customers to send registration applications electronically. The commission, which runs the Legal Aid scheme in England and Wales, makes around 9,000 applications to Land Registry each year. In April it started lodging documents via the Land Registry portal rather than the post, following a joint project to develop an appropriate system. Both organisations will make savings in time and money thanks to the speed and efficiency of Land Registry’s electronic services. By the end of May around 750 documents had been processed. John Wright, Director of Information Systems at Land Registry, said the project had been a landmark example of cooperative working between two government departments. "Land Registry and the Legal Services Commission have worked hard on this exciting joint project and staff from both organisations can see huge benefits," said John. "As we prepare to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Legal Aid provision, it seems appropriate to introduce improvements which we hope will also stand the test of time and truly deliver the benefits of joined-up government." Tailored solution Land Registry was able to design a solution tailored to the commission’s needs as part of its development of a range of electronic services accessed via the portal. Like all portal customers, the commission has signed a memorandum of understanding and network access agreement and will pay its fees by variable direct debit. A dedicated customer contact centre provides support. Anja Litwintschik, a senior caseworker at the commission, said she had been impressed by Land Registry’s technology and customer care. "The changes in our working practices as a result of this project are significant and really quite exciting," said Anja. "There will be time savings in sending applications and it will help our environmental policy by not having to print out forms." The portal is very clever – it’s intuitive and user friendly and does eliminate the errors." The project drew on the expertise of a wide range of Land Registry teams, from the technology experts at Information Systems to the legal team who drew up the memorandum of understanding. Project Manager Cathy Braithwaite said all the teams involved had worked well together to deliver the results on time. "It is good to work closely with stakeholders such as the commission," said Cathy. "It enabled us to work to a plan with set timings for testing and review and we hit all the deadlines." Landmark achievement Richard Chandler, the commission’s account executive in Land Registry’s Marketing & Sales Group, said the user testing had gone well and customer relations were very good. "Working with another government department on the successful delivery of e-services is a landmark achievement for Land Registry," said Richard. "They are really happy they have got a central contact who can deal with queries. They can use the customer contact centre for their casework queries but they can also still liaise with me." The commission is now sending its statutory charges, Form JJ restrictions and discharges electronically. It is also able to lodge electronic applications to cancel its restrictions and withdraw its cautions against dealings. Given the success of this project, it may be possible to enable more of the commission’s applications to be delivered electronically in the future. "We have built a very good relationship between ourselves and Land Registry," said Anja. "Throughout the project they kept us firmly in the loop on what to expect. "Everyone was very personable and put in a lot of hard work. We very much hope that the cooperation between us will continue." Statutory charges are placed on the homes of people who have received legal aid to fight a civil case in which they have gained or kept the property. The legal aid becomes, in effect, a loan that is repaid when the property is sold. The charge puts the legal aid recipient in the same position as someone paying their solicitor privately, deterring them from running up unnecessary legal costs. Money recouped through the scheme is available to fund other people’s legal cases in the future. |
