Government funds 2 million IT revolution

Invest-To-Save: Land Registry and LSC to spearhead major projects on e-conveyancing and on-line legal advice

The Land Registry and Legal Services Commission (LSC) last week received more than 2 million to pilot major investments in projects on e-conveyancing and on-line legal advice respectively.

The projects were among 75 local and national partnership schemes awarded a total of 68 million from the Treasury's invest-to-save budget.

The budget's aim is to fund projects offering innovative ways of delivering public services.

IT schemes involving solicitors in Sheffield and the Galleries of Justice in Nottingham also received funding.

The Land Registry has received more than 1.5 million over two years to design, build and pilot the proposed system of electronic conveyancing, and to develop a full business case for its implementation nationally.

The Land Registry is leading the project, which involves five other bodies:

l The Lord Chancellor's Department, which is overseeing work on the necessary enabling legislation;

l The Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, which is developing the seller's pack;

l The Inland Revenue, which is handling the automatic collection of stamp duty;

l Companies' House, which is working with the registry to remove compliance burdens for companies dealing with land, and;

l The Valuation Office Agency, which is working with the registry in removing compliance burdens for the conveyancing community.

The electronic conveyancing revolution is expected to take between five and ten years to complete.

Chief Land Registrar Peter Collis said: 'This is excellent news for the Land Registry and for all the other participants in this exciting project.

By abolishing paper, and conducting conveyancing on-line, this programme of work aims to make a real improvement to the way that property is bought and sold.'

The LSC has received 483,000 to develop, in partnership with Bedworth and Stoke Citizens' Advice Bureaux, a legal expert advice system.

The total cost is 651,000, with the balance made up of match-funding from the organisations involved.

The system will aid advisers at the bureaux by providing them with a database of expert advice, which will give clients more information about their problems and possible solutions at the outset.

It should also cut down on inappropriate referrals and weed out problems which do not have a legal solution.

Initially, the pilot will concentrate on housing, employment and immigration law, and will offer translation services as well as aid for people with sight and hearing disabilities.

LSC regional director Sarah Norman said: 'Hopefully, this system can be extended in the future to involve a larger number of advice providers.

We will be working closely with the National Association of Citizens' Advice Bureaux, which supported this bid.'

The Sheffield Advice Centres Group successfully bid for 360,500 to create an integrated network of not-for-profit organisations, consisting of the local authority and solicitors' firms that provide advice and information to excluded communities in the city.

The network will have a single access point (via a range of media) and will create easier access to a variety of services by the use of IT, including: referrals to network members and making appointments; supplying information, self-help packages to other providers and direct to clients; direct access through video links and other resources; and advice and information in community languages, or addressing special needs.

The Galleries of Justice has received 828,450 to develop a Web site for young offenders involved in the criminal justice system.

It aims to tackle the roots of social problems caused by young offenders' alienation in society and lack of access to neutral information about judicial processes.

It will include material designed by ex-offenders and video-streamed advice and guidance.

Neil Rose