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Ministerial Correction

Monday 24 March 2014

Justice

Legal Services (Red Tape Challenge)

The following is an extract from the Written Ministerial Statement presented by the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, the right hon. Member for Epsom and Ewell (Chris Grayling), on 27 January 2014.

The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Chris Grayling): ...We will work with the Land Registry to simplify the process of searching for local land charges by making the legislative changes necessary to allow the Land Registry to have sole responsibility for maintaining a local land charges register, and for supplying local search results. This should make searching simpler as there will be one register of local land charges, rather than separate registers with different local authorities as at present. It will also enable the Land Registry to standardise the price of searches, turnaround times and the format of searches and will mark a significant step towards making the Land Registry a “one-stop shop” for property searches by April 2015. The Land Registry will continue to make the necessary changes to move towards “digital by default”, including enabling all

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applications to update/change the Land Register to be made electronically, should people wish to do so, by March 2014.

[Official Report, 27 January 2014, Vol. 574, c. 23-24WS.]

Letter of correction from Chris Grayling:

An error has been identified in the Statement given on 27 January 2014.

The correct Statement should have been:

The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Chris Grayling): ...Subject to the outcome of the consultation, ‘Land Registry: Wider Powers and Local Land Charges’ published on 16 January 2014, we will work with the Land Registry to simplify the process of searching for local land charges by making the legislative changes necessary to allow the Land Registry to have sole responsibility for maintaining a local land charges register, and for supplying local land chargesearch results. This should make searching simpler as there will be one register of local land charges, rather than separate registers with different local authorities as at present. It will also enable the Land Registry to standardise the price of searches, turnaround times and the format of searches and will mark a significant step towards making the Land Registry a “one-stop shop” for property searches by April 2015. The Land Registry will continue to make the necessary changes to move towards “digital by default”, including enabling all applications to update/change the Land Register to be made electronically, should people wish to do so, by March 2014.