Law Society to help manage National Land Information Service

PROPERTY: national e-conveyancing service expected to be operational by next year

The Law Society has joined forces with the Halifax Bank in a consortium that last week won the contract to run the National Land Information Service (NLIS) - which will from next year allow conveyancers to carry out property searches at the touch of a button.The winning consortium -- led by IT company MacDonald Dettwiler & Associates and also including Hays and Laser-Scan -- should have NLIS up and running across England and Wales by spring 2001.NLIS has been piloted for two years in Bristol with four law firms; it allows the solicitor to enter a property's reference number into the system and receive search results for all relevant authorities within 48 hours.The contract awarded by the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, last week was for the NLIS 'hub' - the gateway.

Once the hub is in place, up to four licences will be awarded to consortia to provide the channels of information.

The consortia will buy data through the hub and then sell it on to solicitors, conveyancers and the general public.

It is expected that competition between the channels, as well as with other property information providers, will keep the costs low.Once NLIS and the National Land Gazetteer - which will allocate each parcel of land a unique reference number - are in place, it will be the first time since the Domesday Book that there has been a full property register for the whole country.Law Society Vice-President David McIntosh said that the Society had become involved 'to ensure homebuyers and solicitors can have access to a service that provides real benefit in terms of speed and efficiency'.

The Society hopes to develop a specific channel through NLIS exclusively for solicitors.The multi-million pound investment for the project is being provided by MacDonald Dettwiler, but negotiations over any share of profits with the other consortium members are ongoing.Lord Irvine said that NLIS 'is an important component in helping make e-conveyancing a reality'.

The government will produce a basic model for e-conveyancing by the end of 2001.

New legislation will be required before proceeding to a full trial of the system during 2002-3.

Neil Rose