Law Commission’s Review of the Land Registration Act 2002: Government Response

Thursday 25th March 2021 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Paul Scully)]

My right hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Climate Change and Corporate Responsibility (Lord Callanan) has today made the following statement:

I am grateful to the Law Commission for its review of the Land Registration Act 2002 which it published on 24 July 2018. The Government have today published their full response to the review recommendations.

HM Land Registry is committed to becoming the world’s leading land registry for speed, simplicity and an open approach to data. The land registration regime provides essential trust and confidence to the property and lending markets. It does so by providing efficient access to secure and accurate information needed to transact land and use it as security for borrowing. The regime is underpinned by a state-backed guarantee of title. It is important the regime is examined, from time to time, to ensure that it is working effectively.

The Law Commission made 53 recommendations, most of which are quite technical in nature and narrowly focused. That should give us confidence that the land registration system is generally working well.

The full response sets out the Government’s conclusions in respect of each of the recommendations.

Once again, I thank the Law Commission for the diligence that has gone into its work examining the land registration regime, and for the clarity of its conclusions expressed in its report.

[HCWS888]