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HIPS were a joke. The reason there are delays in conveyancing is because of chains and people lying about what their own situation is in order to secure themselves the opportunity of buying a particular house; this can include lying about their financial position to lying about generally being a "cash buyer" when far from being a cash buyer they are struggling to secure the necessary loan and/or DO have a house to sell. Rarely can the issue of delay be set at the door of the conveyance (except for those who connive with their client and participate in the lying process). I have not been directly involved with domestic conveyancing for a number of years - being only too glad to confine myself to commercial property. The relentless moaning about the conveyancing process being all the fault of the lawyers involved is just tedious and just another way for the Government to drive edges between lawyers and the public - they will never miss an opportunity to do that.

Oh and as for Martin's last comment - I blame the UK Government for not taking a more active role in the formation of the EU. We were always busy paddling our own canoe and keeping on the sidelines. Instead of arguing the case against the wide introduction of the Euro and against the worst aspect of Schengen (namely getting rid of border controls - short-sighted in the extreme as we have seen over recent years) and doing this from the point of view of the interest of the EU project as a whole, we just wanted to get exemptions for ourselves. As many Remainers would say (and have said) they totally agree that the EU is very flawed (Macron would also seem to agree) but do we always choose to throw something away because of its imperfections or do we perhaps, in the interests of everyone, try to get those flaws put right? If we were to have done that from the outset, and not adopted this policy of arguing just for our own interests, the EU may have been very different by now. Instead, we have now made ourselves the sacrificial lamb when it comes to the EU and the likes of Macron have a real chance of making things better but we shall not be able to benefit from it.