§ Mr. REMERasked the Attorney-General whether it is the policy of the Chief Land Registrar to encourage the voluntary use by the public of the facilities for land registration offered by His Majesty's Land Registry; if such is the policy, whether he will indicate what is being done to give effect thereto; and is he aware that property owners generally are not fully aware of the land registration facilities at their disposal?
§ The ATTORNEY-GENERALAs indicated in the reply which I gave to the hon. and gallant Member for West Dorset (Major Colfox) on 23rd December last, there have been considerable increases in the number of first registrations in voluntary areas in the last 17, and particularly in the last five or six years. Experience shows that the advantages of land registration are greatest in areas where registration is universal and compulsory on transfer, but the Chief Land Registrar, acting under the instructions of the Lord Chancellor, affords every facility for those who desire to register voluntarily. I have no means of knowing that property owners are not fully aware of the facilities at their disposal, but I am disposed to look for the success of land registration rather to a gradual increase in the number of compulsory areas than to a general extension of registration in areas where registration is not compulsory.