Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage on 8 April (HL15918), what progress they have since made in further improving HM Land Registry application processing times.

Improving speed of service remains the top priority for HM Land Registry (HMLR) and I’m pleased to report that good progress is being made.

Since the previous response on 8 April 2026, HMLR has continued to improve processing times by investing in its people and technology, increasing automation of simple application types and improving the information received from customers through further pre-submission validation checks. HMLR is also developing the use of artificial intelligence to undertake administrative tasks, allowing the expertise and experience of their skilled civil servants to be focused on applications that are more complex or require legal judgement.

The age of outstanding post-completion applications is now less than 9 months across all service lines. In the first six months of 2026/27, HMLR completed over 338,000 more applications than in the same period last year. Building on this progress, HMLR is finalising plans to tailor its services to better reflect the different needs of its customers.

HMLR processing times are publicly available on gov.uk here: HM Land Registry: processing times - GOV.UK.

Anyone who is concerned that a delay to their application may cause financial, legal, or personal problems or put a property sale at risk, can apply to have their application expedited free of charge. So far this financial year, HMLR has processed around 1,700 expedited applications every day, and processed more than 95% of them as far as possible within 10 working days. This means that HMLR either ensured the property was fully registered, or requested information needed from other parties including on related previously received applications, before they could fully register the expedited application.

HMLR also prioritise time-critical pre-completion information services that are needed before a property transaction can take place. HMLR receive over 22 million of these each year with almost all completed within three working days, and over 90% delivered instantly.