The Department for Business, Innovation & Skills is seeking views on proposals to create a new company to take on service delivery functions from HM Land Registry.

The company will take over responsibility for processing land and property registration from HM Land Registry which BIS believe will serve the property market more effectively by creating greater flexibility to operate. Under the proposals a separate Office of the Chief Land Registrar (OCLR) will be retained within government, which will mainly perform regulatory and fee-setting functions, to make sure customers’ interests continue to be protected.

The consultation, which runs until the 20 March 2014, proposes that a company, limited by shares, should be established for the purpose of receiving and processing substantive applications for registration and preliminary services using, where work is not automated, skilled technicians to continue to provide the services currently provided including sharing with the OCLR tasks such as:

• keeping a register of title,
• keeping a register of cautions against first registration,
• keeping various registers – including land charges, pending actions, writs and orders affecting land, – and an index whereby all entries made in any of those registers can readily be traced, and
• dealing with objections,

but undertaking in its own right all of the various administrative functions such as registration, index map searches and so forth.

Further details of the consultation can be found on the .gov web site (www.gov.uk/government/consultations/land-registry-new-service-delivery-company)