HL Deb 02 April 1968 vol 290 cc1185-6

2.56 p.m.

LORD OGMORE

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

[The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government where the Headquarters and the district registries of H.M. Land Registry are situate and whether it is proposed to establish a Land Registry in and for Wales.]

THE LORD CHANCELLOR (LORD GARDINER)

My Lords, the headquarters of Her Majesty's Land Registry are in Lincoln's Inn Fields. District land registries are situated at Croydon, Durham, Gloucester, Harrow, Lytham St. Annes, Nottingham, Plymouth, Stevenage and Tunbridge Wells. There is a sub-office in Swansea which it is intended to expand into a district land registry as soon as staff can be recruited. It will then act not only as the Land Registry for Wales and Monmouthshire but also for Cheshire, Shropshire and Herefordshire.

LORD OGMORE

My Lords, while I express my thanks to the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chancellor both for the courtesy of his reply and for the content of it, may I ask him when he can anticipate that the sub-office will become a fully-fledged district office?

THE LORD CHANCELLOR

My Lords, at the moment I cannot, because it is subject to the Government's freeze on an increase in the number of civil servants.

LORD OGMORE

My Lords, in view of the fact that three-quarters of the population of Wales live within a radius of 60 miles of Cardiff, would not the noble and learned Lord agree that it is highly inconvenient, especially for personal searches, for people in Wales to go to Lytham St. Annes?

THE LORD CHANCELLOR

My Lords, of course there is the sub-office in Swansea. But nobody would be more pleased than I should be if the additional staff required to make it into a district registry could be obtained now. And they would have been obtained but for the Government's decision that there should be no increase in the number of civil servants.

LORD BYERS

My Lords, would it not be possible to cut down some other part of the Civil Service to provide for this—perhaps the Land Commission?

THE LORD CHANCELLOR

My Lords, that is not a matter for me.