HC Deb 02 February 1989 vol 146 cc337-8W
Mr. Clelland

To ask the Attorney-General what was the average time taken by each of the land registry offices from receipt to completion of property transfers for each of the years 1984 to 1988.

Permanent Staff
Staff in Post
Authorised complement 1 January 1989 1 January 1988 1 January 1987 1 January 1986 1 January 1985 1 January 1984
Croydon 550 458 495 472 484 477
Harrow 585 520 520 535 526 537
Tunbridge Wells 725 631 633 638 612 596
Lytham 670 573 535 533 520 526
Nottingham 890 712 686 641 644 639
Gloucester 770 687 697 662 650 651
Stevenage 695 612 622 614 548 527
Durham 770 526 463 466 475 476
Plymouth 665 568 497 457 450 468
Swansea 640 466 377 366 331 323
Birkenhead 560 406 376 359 359 357
Weymouth 620 499 445 431 375 319
Peterborough 680 547 432 411 375 338
Telford 400 153 44
Coventry 350 163
Hull 340 112
Leicester 130
Headquarters (including Computer Services Division based at Plymouth) 388 348 329 320 294 273
Land Charges Department 172 158 151 152 153 146
Total 10,600 8,139 7,302 7,057 6,796 6,653

The Attorney-General

The average completion times in weeks at each office for all categories of substantive applications at the end of December for the year indicated are shown in the table.

Office 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988
Croydon 5 7 13 18 22
Harrow 10 10 17 21 19
Tunbridge Wells 9 10 18 15 15
Lytham 8 7 14 24 18
Nottingham 8 8 16 22 27
Gloucester 7 8 17 25 28
Stevenage 8 8 14 19 19
Durham 8 6 14 21 22
Plymouth 7 8 14 24 24
Swansea 5 7 14 19 22
Birkenhead 9 9 11 19 15
Weymouth 5 7 1 1 17
Peterborough 6 6 11 23 26
Telford 19
Coventry 25
Hull 19

The last three offices were opened as district land registries in 1988.

Mr. Clelland

To ask the Attorney-General what is the current complement of staff at each of the land registry offices and what were the levels of staff for each of the years 1984 to 1988.

The Attorney-General

[holding answer 20 January 1989]: The authorised complement at each of the land registry's offices at 1 January 1989 and the total numbers of permanent staff in post on the same day in the years 1984 to 1988 are set out in the table.