§ Lord Taylor of Blackburnasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they have reached a decision on the proposal to restore "price paid" to the Land Register for England and Wales. [HL561]
§ The Lord Chancellor (Lord Irvine of Lairg)After extensive consultation, I have decided to restore "price paid" to the Land Register. This is consistent with the Government's policy to improve the house buying process by making important information more readily available, particularly at an early stage of the process. Information included in the Land Register should be as comprehensive as is practical and proper—property value is of great interest to people and there is no good reason why it should not be made available.
The information will not be inserted retrospectively. All applications received by the Land Registry on or after 1 April 2000 will have the price paid entered on the Land Register where it is practicable to do so. As with other data, the Land Register will provide the current information. Hence, on a subsequent change of ownership, the original price paid will be removed from the register.
This change in practice will bring the Land Register for England and Wales into line with many other jurisdictions where the price paid for property is a matter of public record. This includes most of Europe and, notably, Scotland, where this information has been publicly available since 1617 without appearing to cause any problems.