§ Mr. Oakesasked the Attorney-General how many and which local authorities have made application to have compulsory registration of title extended to their areas and are still awaiting such extension and what is the cause of the delay.
§ The Attorney-GeneralThe following are the authorities which have passed resolutions signifying their desire that registration of title should be compulsorily applied to their areas in respect of which Orders in Council have not yet been made:
- Counties
- Bedfordshire.
- Cheshire.
- Devon.
- Durham.
- Essex.
- Hampshire.
- Nottinghamshire.
- Staffordshire.
- West Suffolk.
- Worcesteshire.
- Denbighshire.
- Flintshire.
- Lancashire.*
- East Sussex.*
- Warwickshire.*
- County Boroughs
- Bath.
- Bootle.
- Bournemouth.
- Bristol.
- Burton-upon-Trent.
- Darlington.
- Derby.
- Dudley.
- Exeter.
- Gloucester.
- Liverpool.
- Luton.
- Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
- Plymouth.
- Portsmouth.
- St. Helen's.
- Southampton.
- Southport.
- South Shields.
- Stoke-on-Trent.
- Walsall.
- Warley.
- West Bromwich.
- West Hartlepool.
- Wigan.
- Wolverhampton.
* Compulsory registration has been extended to parts of these counties.
It is the Government's policy to extend compulsory registration only to built-up 276W areas in the first instance. The total population of the areas to which it is proposed to extend the system this year is over 2 million and next year 2½million. It is administratively impossible to proceed faster. Moreover, the extension of compulsory registration requires that there should be an up to date ordnance survey of the areas concerned and not all those mentioned above satisfy this requirement.
§ Mr. Oakesasked the Attorney-General what is the average period of time taken in dealing with applications to register title to land on first applications and on subsequent applications, respectively.
§ The Attorney-General47.6 working days in respect of first registrations and 26.8 working days in respect of subsequent applications.
§ Mr. Oakesasked the Attorney-General how many persons are at present employed at the Central Land Registry; and of these how many are qualified barristers or solicitors and how many qualified legal executives.
§ The Attorney-GeneralDetails of the staff of H.M. Land Registry are set out in the table below. There are no qualified legal executives on the staff.
Office Total number of staff Number legally qualified Headquarters (Lincoln's Inn Fields) 497 16 District Land Registries: Gloucester 205 4 Harrow 342 6 Lytham St. Annes 542 11 Nottingham 449 7 Stevenage 154 3 Tunbridge Wells 651 13 Durham Sub-Office 51 — Land Charges Department (engaged on registration of title work) 10 — 2,901 60
§ Mr. Oakesasked the Attorney-General how many applications for registration of title under Sections 4 and 8 of the Land Registration Act 1925, relating to land situate outside areas of compulsory registration of title, were received during each of the years 1955–65.
277W
§ The Attorney-GeneralStatistics of the number of applications received for first registration of title are not available. The following table gives the number of applications dealt with in each of the years from 1955–65:
1955 3,202 1956 3,882 1957 4,223 1958 5,105 1959 6,163 1960 9,050 1961 12,150 1962 10,474 1963 10,795 1964 14,884 1965 16,879
§ Mr. Oakesasked the Attorney-General how many public inquiries have been requested in areas to which compulsory registration of title has been extended since the coming into operation of the Land Registration Act 1925.
§ The Attorney-GeneralOne.
§ Mr. Oakesasked the Attorney-General what consideration he has given to the introduction of modern electronic computers into the Central Land Registry; and whether he has had any discussions on this subject.
§ The Attorney-GeneralThe introduction of electronic computers and other mechanical processes into H.M. Land Registry has been under recent consideration. The feasibility of using computer methods for processing statistics has been studied, and initial test runs and programming have been completed. It is expected that the computer will be in operation by the end of this year. The use of a computer for the payment of salaries and wages is under consideration and may be in operation in 1968.