Corporate report

Annual report of HM Land Registry 2016 to 2017: appendices

Updated 12 September 2017

Applies to England and Wales

Appendix A

Volumes and workloads 2016/17 and 2015/16

Application intake by type and method of receipt

2016/17 2015/16
  Total applications/products received Applications/products received through online services % of applications/products received through online services Total applications/products received Applications/products received through online services % of applications/products received through online services
Total applications/products 31,836,030 29,605,434 93.0 30,372,360 28,224,225 92.9
Bulk register updates (BRUs) 591,774 352,348
Total applications excluding BRUs 31,244,256 29,605,434 94.8 30,020,012 28,224,225 94.0
             
Substantive applications excluding BRUs 4,905,545 4,255,148 86.6 4,721,574 3,926,879 83.2
Preliminary services products 17,794,584 17,633,247 99.1 17,096,106 16,898,741 98.8
Enquiry services applications 8,544,127 7,717,039 90.3 8,202,332 7,398,605 90.2
  31,244,256 29,605,434 94.8 30,020,012 28,224,225 94.0
Substantive applications excluding BRUs            
First registrations 109,030 111,309
Dispositionary first leases 230,564 199,239 86.4 224,529 175,592 78.2
Transfers of part of registered land 181,295 151,216 83.4 170,108 129,046 75.9
Dealings of whole with registered land 4,384,656 3,904,693 89.1 4,215,628 3,622,241 85.9
  4,905,545 4,255,148 86.7 4,721,574 3,926,879 83.2
Preliminary services products            
Official copies1 14,641,653 14,533,418 99.3 13,882,149 13,760,713 99.1
Official searches 2,381,867 2,371,719 99.4 2,424,335 2,409,063 99.4
Official searches of the index map1 771,064 726,699 92.3 789,622 728,965 92.3
  17,794,584 17,631,836 98.8 17,096,106 16,898,741 98.8
Enquiry services applications            
Register views 5,413,795 5,413,795 100.0 5,325,027 5,325,027 100.0
Title plan views 951,324 951,324 100.0 957,449 957,449 100.0
Document views 67,415 67,415 100.0 73,125 73,125 100.0
Correspondence 304,556 192,978 63.4 334,762 214,026 63.9
Telephone enquiries 715,510 682,991
MapSearch PDF downloads 1,091,527 1,091,527 100.0 828,978 828,978 100.0
  8,544,127 7,717,039 90.3 8,202,332 7,398,605 90.2

The table above sets out the transactional activities for the year, along with comparatives for the previous year. In this financial year we serviced more than 31 million applications, fulfilling the requirements of the 2002 Land Registration Act. These form the core of our activities and the revenues associated with them. The table also details our progress towards electronic delivery, in relation to the various types of application we receive. Excluding bulk register updates (BRUs), the proportion of applications received electronically rose from 94% to 94.8%.

Bulk register updates are groups of applications lodged at HM Land Registry affecting a large volume of registered titles, such as a bank changing the address for service on all of its registered charges. The levels of receipt of such applications are volatile in their nature and are therefore separated from other application types in order to avoid distortion of the data.

Note: An official copy application may result in more than one register and/or title plan being supplied. A search of the index map application may give rise to more than one title number being revealed. For this reason the number of registers/title plans or the number of title numbers revealed are used as a metric rather than the number of applications themselves. These are termed products.

Appendix B

Land Charges and Agricultural Credits volumes and workloads 2016/17 and 2015/16

The Land Charges Department

The Land Charges Department operates under the authority of the Land Charges Act 1972.

The department maintains registers of Land Charges, pending actions, writs and orders affecting land and other encumbrances registered against the names of owners of property, which are not registered under the Land Registration Acts. The department also maintains the Index of Proprietors’ Names (IOPN). This index can be searched against only on production of the appropriate authority and is used to establish whether any property assets are held against individuals or companies.

Some elements of customer accounts are also managed in the Land Charges Department.

Type of application Number of applications or names in 2016/17 Percentage variation compared with 2015/16
New registrations, rectifications and renewals 42,572 -20.54
Cancellations 8,671 -14.76
Official searches    
– Full searches 172,098 -2.23
– Searches limited to insolvency 1,511,711 +9.96
Office copies 25,490 -4.08
Total 1,760,542 +7.28

The Agricultural Credits Department

The Agricultural Credits Department is responsible for maintaining a register of short-term loans by banks under Part ll of the Agricultural Credits Act 1928. These charges are secured on farming stock and other agricultural assets of the farmer.

Year New registrations Cancellations and rectifications Searches Total
2015/16 857 820 2,541 4,218
2016/17 562 675 2,293 3,530

Appendix C

Treasury Minute

HM Land Registry Trading Fund

HM Treasury Minute dated 24 April 2012

  1. Section 4(1) of the Government Trading Funds Act 1973 (“the 1973 Act”) provides that a Trading Fund established under that Act shall be under the control and management of the responsible Minister (or, where a Trading Fund is established for operations carried on by a person appointed in pursuance of any enactment, that person, if the Order establishing the Trading Fund in accordance with section 1(6) (a) of the 1973 Act) and in the discharge of his functions in relation to the fund it shall be his duty:

(a) To manage the funded operations so that the revenue of the fund:

(i) Consists principally of receipts in respect of goods and services provided in the course of the funded operations, and

(ii) is not less than sufficient, taking one year with another, to meet outgoings which are properly chargeable to revenue account; and

(b) To achieve such further financial objectives as the Treasury may from time to time, by minute laid before the House of Commons, indicate as having been determined by the responsible Minister (with Treasury concurrence) to be desirable of achievement.

  1. The Trading Fund for HM Land Registry was established on 1 April 1993 under the Land Registry Trading Fund Order 1993 (SI 1993 No.938). Article 3 (2) of that Order provides that the Trading Fund shall be under the control and management of the Chief Land Registrar. Additional assets were appropriated to the Trading Fund on 11 March 1996 under the Land Registry Trading Fund (Additional Assets) Order 1996 (SI 1996 No. 750). On 13 October 2003, the Trading Fund was extended and amended under the Land Registry Trading Fund (Extension and Amendment) Order 2003 (SI 2003 No. 2094).

  2. The Secretary of State for the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, being the responsible Minister for the purposes of section 4(1)(b) of the 1973 Act, has determined (with Treasury concurrence) that a further financial objective desirable of achievement by HM Land Registry to achieve, over the period from 1 April 2012 to 31 March 2017, a return, averaged over the period as a whole, of at least 3.5 % real (see note 1) in accordance with Managing Public Money. This will take the form of an operating surplus on ordinary activities post exceptional items and interest (payable and receivable), but before dividends, expressed as a percentage of average capital employed. Capital employed shall equate to the total assets from which shall be deducted the total liabilities.

  3. This Minute supersedes that dated 15 December 2003.

  4. Let a copy of this Minute be laid before the House of Commons pursuant to section 4(1)(b) of the Government Trading Funds Act 1973.

Note1: 3.5% real will be calculated annually as 3.5% plus the latest inflation estimate for that year, provided by ONS. By way of a worked example, for the fiscal year 2012/13 the financial target will be 6.29%. This has been calculated as (1+3.5%)* (1+ 2.7%), where 2.7% is the ONS 2012/13 inflation estimate (National Accounts figures from the ONS, http:// www.hm-treasury.gov.uk /data_ gdp _fig.htm, 22 December 2011).

HM Treasury
24 April 2012

Appendix D

Sustainability historical data

Carbon data (tonnes)

Year Year-on-year greenhouse gas (GHG) target Forecast GHG (including initiatives) Actual GHG Actual percentage reduction (cumulative)
2009/10 (baseline) 14,326 14,326 14,326 0%
2010/11 13,610 14,326 13,099 -9%
2011/12 12,893 14,326 11,211 -22%
2012/13 12,177 14,326 11,340 -21%
2013/14 11,461 14,326 9,128 -36%
2014/15 10,745 13,176 8,656 -41%
2015/16 9,885 9,885 8,392 -41%
2016/17 8,596 8,596 7,328 -49%

The greenhouse gas draft target is to reduce emissions by 31% by March 2020 over the baseline data for 2009/10.

Gross emissions have reduced by 49% over the baseline.

Waste arising (tonnes)

Year Year-on-year waste target Forecast waste (including initiatives) Actual waste Actual percentage reduction (cumulative)
2009/10 (baseline) 1,979 1,979 1,979 0%
2010/11 1,880 1,979 1,443 -27%
2011/12 1,781 1,979 1,689 -15%
2012/13 1,682 1,979 1,421 -28%
2013/14 1,583 1,979 959 -51%
2014/15 1,484 1,979 907 -54%
2015/16 1,484 1,484 1,106 -44%
2016/17 1,484 1,484 1,048 -47%

The table shows the trend for waste arising against the Greening Government Commitments reduction target of 25% by March 2020. A 47% reduction was achieved. Of the waste arising 698 tonnes is paper sent for processing through the closed loop paper recycling provision within government. This paper equates to 70% of our total waste arising.

Water reduction (cubic metres)

Year Year-on-year water target Forecast water (including initiatives) Actual water Actual percentage reduction (cumulative)
2009/10 (baseline) 57,214 57,214 57,214 0%
2010/11 54,353 57,214 54,644 -4%
2011/12 51,493 57,214 37,413 -35%
2012/13 48,631 57,214 31,230 -45%
2013/14 45,771 56,984 36,037 -37%
2014/15 42,910 56,984 38,153 -33%
2015/16 45,772 45,772 36,395 -36%
2016/17 42,911 42,911 34,967 -39%

A 39% reduction in water consumption has been achieved against a target of 25%. Consumption per full-time equivalent, including staff on HM Land Registry sites from other government departments, is 6.7m3.

Appendix E

Indemnity Fund

In 2016/17 we paid just under £7m for 995 claims, compared with £8m for 1,003 claims in 2015/16. The largest claim paid this year was £702,290 for a forged discharge of a mortgage. The discharge being lodged meant the property was unmortgaged and the fraudster was then able to transfer the property freely. Fraud (usually by way of forgery or impersonation) remains the single most significant cause of indemnity payments and this reflects the general trend over the past decade or so.

The original maximum value of the substantive claims paid was just over £11m but these were settled for £4.7m saving £6.35m. During the year a further 419 claims valued at £4.85m were settled for no value. Of these 27 were for fraud and were valued at just over £2m. During the year 1,237 new claims were received totalling £14.58m, including 49 fraud claims valued at just over £9m.

We recovered £308,388 under our statutory rights of recourse, compared with £231,298 last year. Recourse figures tend to vary considerably from year to year, reflecting the unpredictable interplay of legal and factual elements which determine the viability of achieving any recovery.

Nature of claim Number of claims Substantive loss (£) Costs (£) Percentage of total
Extent of registered titles 127 424,890 465,374 12.8
Errors in/omissions from register entries 103 280,424 527,504 11.6
Sundry plans errors 4 5,500 3,736 0.1
Fraud and forgery 53 3,881,225 1,060,200 71.0
Official inspections of title plans 7 1,250 4,523 0.1
Bankruptcy errors 0 0 0 0
Official searches 5 0 1,900 0
Official copies 0 0 0 0
Errors in searches of the index map (SIMs) 11 8,210 10,243 0.3
Errors in filed extracts 258 42,508 60,316 1.5
Lost documents/administrative errors 426 64,996 115,080 2.6
Land Charges errors 1 25 0 0
Total 995 4,709,028 2,248,876 100.0
Gross payment     £6,957,904  
Less sums recovered under our statutory right of recourse     £308,388  
Net indemnity     £6,649,516