Notices

From the Land Registry - Welsh on the register - Y Gymraeg ar y GofrestrPractitioners in Wales will be aware that the Land Registry has a Welsh language scheme which was formally approved by the Welsh language board on 20 March 1998.

The registry has developed its Welsh and bilingual services over the period since the original scheme was approved.

Telephonic and written communications with the registry, personal visits and the delivery of formal applications can now be readily undertaken in either Welsh or English and every enquiry or application is dealt with on the basis that both languages have equal status.

The success of the scheme can be gauged by the way in which the new Welsh and bilingual services have been seamlessly interwoven into the registration services offered by the District Land Registry for Wales.However, the original scheme did not provide for the Welsh language to appear on the register of title because it would be necessary to develop the registry's centralised computer system held at Plymouth to allow for this.

Therefore, it was decided to continue the then current policy of providing ad hoc translations of English registers when one was specifically requested or when the language choice of the applicant was apparent from the application lodged.Two years ago, a project team was set up to consider the question of the register and the extension of equality to the register of title.

The project team comprised officers from the practice division in London, staff from the District Land Registry for Wales and staff from the computer services division in Plymouth, all of whom were able to bring their individual skills to bear on the diverse elements of the project.

The team's conclusion was that there is only one register of title although the component parts of that register may contain entries in more than one language.

The team's recommendations were based on this premise and accepted by the Land Registry board which directed that the requisite work be undertaken to implement the changes.

Those changes came into effect on1 October 2001 and fall into two categories: The first is that the template within which the register entries are printed will be produced in a bilingual format - thus the headings and standard information supplied on the printed copy of the register will henceforth appear in Welsh and English on each paper copy register prepared by the District Land Registry for Wales.

The new style template will be common to all registers of properties in Wales and it will not be possible to request a monolingual Welsh or English version thereof for individual registers.

Nor will it be possible for expatriate Welshmen living in England to have the registers of their English properties produced on a bilingual template.The second change is more far reaching in that it will allow for individual register entries to appear in the language of the source document which created them or, where there is no document, will allow a register entry to reflect the language choice of the applicant in the application which gave rise to that entry.

This means that when, over a period of time, sequential Welsh and English documents are lodged in support of applications for registration, the register itself will contain sequential Welsh and English entries created by those documents.

This practice will not result in the creation of a 'bilingual register' where every entry is reproduced in both Welsh and English, but it will give rise to a 'dual language register' which will reflect the language choice of the current registered proprietors and of the individuals and organisations which have previously owned or dealt with the property.This service is only available from the operative date and it will not be possible to revise the language of earlier entries which may have been created from original Welsh documents but which were translated into English to facilitate the registration process as it then existed.The procedure will also remove the need to provide automatic translations of what would, until 30 September 2001, have been English-only registers where the language choice of the applicant, apparent from the application lodged, is Welsh.

Such translations will still be available upon request, as will translations into English of Welsh-only registers and entries after 1 October 2001, but as before, these translations will have no legal status other than as ad hoc translations and will be overstamped with the endorsement 'Land Registry translation of [entry ...

of the .......] Register' in both Welsh and English.The registry has recently completed the first triennial review of its scheme and a second edition will be produced in the new year.

In addition to the bilingual template and the new policy relating to register entries, the registry will also commit itself to providing a comprehensive bilingual Web site and also to facilitating the use of the Welsh language in its direct access services and in the development of e-conveyancing generally.

l Queries relating to the original scheme or to the new services which have been available from1 October 2001 should be referred to Eleri Sparnon Jones, Welsh language co-ordinator, either by letter, by telephone on 01792 355169 or by e-mail on eleri.jones@landreg.gsi.gov.uk