Land Registry - General - Electronic Conveyancing in England and Wales

Date: 15 Feb 2006

Baroness Ashton of Upholland, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs, today, Wednesday 15 February, made the following written statement in the House of Lords:

"Land Registry has carried out extensive further consultation with stakeholders on the introduction of Electronic Conveyancing in England and Wales since the formal consultation exercise in 2002. The implementation of this important reform programme will continue to be carried out incrementally. A prototype in 2006 (the Chain Matrix) and a pilot exercise in the second half of 2007 (the system to be used for domestic sales) are planned, with further releases as the system progresses. These exercises will be limited to voluntary users.

"Once sufficient experience of the new system has been gained, the Secretary of State and Land Registry will initiate a consultation process with stakeholders over the form of the rules which will make e-conveyancing compulsory for most transactions. If Parliament approves those rules, I would expect the implementation of the compulsory provisions to take place as soon as possible, which is likely to be in 2009 or 2010."

E-conveyancing will transform the current paper-based conveyancing system into electronic documents, requisitions and signatures and is a central pillar of the government's agenda to modernise public services.

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