§ 2. Mr. Carol Johnsonasked the Minister without Portfolio in how many counties and in how many county boroughs, respectively, registration of title to land has been made compulsory on sale under the Land Registration Act, 1925.
§ Sir Eric FletcherThe registration of title on the sale of land has been made compulsory in 5 counties: Berkshire, Kent, London, Middlesex and Surrey, and in 14 county boroughs: Blackburn, Canterbury, Coventry, Croydon, Eastbourne, Hastings, Huddersfield, Leicester, Manchester, Oldham, Oxford, Reading, Rochdale and Salford.
§ Mr. JohnsonCould my hon. Friend hold out any hope of this process being expedited? It is, of course, a very small proportion of the number of counties and county boroughs. Would he agree that the criticism of the burden of conveyancing charges in recent years would be mitigated if land generally were registered throughout the whole country?
§ Sir E. FletcherI would agree with what the hon. Member says in the second part of his supplementary question. With regard to the first part, my noble Friend the Lord Chancellor plans to extend the compulsory system to other areas as rapidly as possible. A programme has been approved for extending the Land Registry as soon as the necessary staff can be recruited, trained and accommodated. On 20th November, an Order in Council was made whereby the compulsory system is to be extended to parts of Warwickshire on 1st February next and to the London Boroughs of New Ham and Barnet on 1st April, 1965.
§ Sir Knox CunninghamIs the hon. Gentleman satisfied that there is sufficient staff to handle the registrations at present, and could he possibly see that some of those registrations are expedited?
§ Sir E. FletcherThere is a shortage of staff and the bottleneck in extending compulsory registration of land is caused by the difficulty of recruiting the additional staff required and training them.