§ Mr. Weetchasked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) what information he has as to which local authorities have adopted computer services and methods for recording and responding to inquiries regarding local land charges and additional inquiries relating to residential properties undergoing conveyancing;
(2) if he will introduce measures to enable him to grant funds to local authorities to enable them to convert to computer their local land charges register and additional inquiries information.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneLocal authorities were first empowered to maintain computerised local land charge records by the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982. A report by LAMSAC in January this year indicated that at least 5 authorities were developing such systems. I understand that LAMSAC will shortly finalise a specification of a computerised record of local land charges and additional inquiries which will be made available to local authorities generally. The contribution which might be made by computerisation to speeding local searches and simplifying house buying is being considered by the conveyancing committee chaired by Professor Farrand. We shall consider how any extension of computerisation might be financed in the light of the committee's second report.