HM Land Registry marks the first major milestone in fulfilling automation ambitions

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Nicky Godding

HM Land Registry, which has a major offices in Gloucester and Coventry, is the latest government department to go digital.

Applications submitted using the HM Land Registry customer portal are now digital by default, using the Digital Registration Service. This is a move away from paper-based electronic applications. Rather than a scan or a PDF, the details of the application are entered directly into the service, capturing the data digitally. Digital data is more structured, accurate and will enable HM Land Registry to automate more applications.

The move to digital by default has been supported by the first major redesign to the customer portal since it was launched in 2009.

Deputy Director for Digital Services Eddie Davies said: "Our objective is to support the development of a simpler, paperless, transparent and user-friendly process for buying and selling property. This update to the portal, and the move to digital by default, is a major milestone in achieving this objective through greater automation which we hope will ultimately lead to better services and quicker applications.

"By automating services, we expect to significantly improve completion of straightforward transactions with an ambition to return to same day applications for many."

From 30 November 2022, digital applications will be the default for business customers submitting applications to change the register.

Customers submitted more than 1.3 million digital applications through the portal between October 2021 to September 2022 and since the start of the year the Digital Registration Service has received more than half a million applications

Requisitions for incorrect name and fee errors have fallen nearly 40 per cent for applications submitted through the Digital Registration Service.

HM Land Registry safeguards land and property ownership valued at £8 trillion, enabling over £1 trillion worth of personal and commercial lending to be secured against property across England and Wales. The Land Register contains more than 26 million titles showing evidence of ownership for more than 88% of the land mass of England and Wales.

Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe. After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts. She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.