We have looked into the seller's packs in this feature before now, as well as having reported regularly on its progress through the legislative procedures. However, we haven't really touched on any of the other areas where huge strides are being made in terms of streamlining the homebuying system. So today we do just that and see what steps have been made so far in the establishment of the National Land Information System - a key element in the drive towards electronic conveyancing.

The National Land Information Services is a hugely important milestone in the reform of the homebuying process. Its aim is to link Her Majesty's Land Registry and providers of local authority searches to create an integrated 'one stop shop' for all the land and property information that may need to be called upon in when carrying out the conveyancing for a property transaction.

It is a joint initiative between private sector partners and the government, both on a central and local level. Initially, the NLIS will concentrate on serving the conveyancing industry, by providing a central access point to the various pieces of land and property-related information that are currently stored on different locations and by many organisations.

According to the NLIS website, it will allow "all searches to be carried out via the Internet, including faster and more accurate property identification through the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG), a definitive index of land and property, and online maps. The conveyancer will be able to retrieve ownership information from the Land Registry, and local land charges information from all local authorities as well as searching for other information relating to the property such as environmental or geological data."

NLIS will essentially be a hub, that will co-ordinate the access to information from a number of different information providers (known as "channels"). These providers include the Land Registry, local authorities and any other providers of land or property information that can be brought on board. The NLIS does not actually hold any data, it merely provides an access point to the information.

For a fee, solicitors will be able to access the information that they need using a single interface on a secure extranet. This means that they can submit a single search request to one place, instead of sending numerous enquiries to very many different bodies. As the databases of the various data providers, particularly local authorities, are brought on-line, a huge 'virtual' database of property information will become available. The process on digitisation should be complete by 2005 at the latest.

The benefits are pretty obvious. The current manual system of local authority search applications can take three weeks or more, depending on the speed of the solicitor and the various information organisations involved in the process. This invariably means stress and worry for some buyers, especially those who are eager for their sales to progress apace.

NLIS will inject a huge amount of speed into the system, meaning that a vast amount of information can be accessed in a timely manner.

The costs of conveyancing will come down too, as the requirements for manual input from the solicitor will be minimised in many straightforward transactions.

A third benefit is that the system will allow solicitors to check peripheral information much more easily, thereby allowing the buyer to make a more informed decision. Rather than having to manually send out search requests for additional non-standard information, this will be achievable at the touch of a button.

1992. The Chief Land Registrar was charged by the Government to "...explore ideas for completing the land register and establish a National Land Information Service...to allow citizens faster and easier access to an authoritative, accurate and comprehensive public record of all land and property".

In accordance with this and other initiatives, a Steering Group was established comprised of:

• HM Land Registry
• Lord Chancellor's Department
• Local Government Board (now IDeA)
• Ordnance Survey
• Association for Geographic Information Citizen's Charter Unit
• Department of the Environment
• Domesday 2000 Group
• Local Authority Valuers' Association
• Registers of Scotland
• Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
• Valuation Office
• Welsh Office

Following a 1995 feasibility report on the establishment of National Land and Property Gazetteer and the viability of NLIS, a pilot project was established in in April 1998.

Like the trials of the seller's pack, the location of the trials was Bristol. The difference is that there is very little contention about the success of the NLIS trials.

David Brown of Alsters - one of the three films of solicitors trialing NLIS - had this to say after 6 months of using the system: "The Bristol Pilot has been a tremendous success in terms of sheer efficiency and time saving. It dramatically speeds up all conveyancing transactions and is in stark contrast to the conventional manual system of conducting searches, which is too often fraught with delays."

The next step was the launch in June 2000 the Land Registry Direct service. Operated in conjunction with technology partner, Global Crossing, the service uses web browser technology on a secure extranet, to enable electronic access to over 17 million registers, title plans and 'deeds referred to' on the Land Register. Many more are still coming online, as the Registry continues its extensive document scanning programme.

The service provides account holders with the following:

• A significantly cheaper tariff structure without the need for purchasing additional software.
• The ability to view title plans online showing the extent of properties.
• Improved facilities for printing and copying into other office PC applications.
• The ability to view registers as scrollable documents including information on the price paid for properties sold since 1 April 2000.
• It will also eventually provide access to millions of copy deeds which are currently only available in paper format.
• Finally, in the longer term, it will provide full electronic delivery of dealings with the HM Land Registry.

In July 2000, the Lord Chancellor name MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates as the preferred bidder to take the project from a regional pilot to a national scheme. They were awarded the licence to create the 'Hub' of the new service, which will be established before up to four licenses are awarded for the creation of the channels for different information types.

In February 2001, he Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, announced that the Land Registry is to launch an ambitious project to facilitate electronic access to its map data. Vectorisation of the Index Map represents the final phase in computerising over 45 million records and will provide customers with a graphical electronic gateway to all land data held by the agency.

The Land Registry Index Map records the location of some 18 million registered land parcels in England and Wales. Based on Ordnance Survey large-scale maps, it is the only source of information which puts the Land Registry's registers of title in a geographical context. Held mainly in the form of some 400,000 paper map documents distributed throughout the Land Registry's 24 regional offices, it is currently updated manually.

The project is currently being pushed forward by a partnership between the local government's Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) and HM Land Registry.

In April, Lord Bach, the Parliamentary Secretary at the Lord Chancellor's Department summarised how many within the industry feel about the current time of change: "The e-conveyancing project and the Land Registry's staff will all provide valuable input into a new strategy and vision for the future. These developments promise revolutionary changes over the next few years to the way the conveyancing process works in England and Wales - changes that will need careful management and a great deal of educating by the Registry. I know I will enjoy sharing with you the challenge of taking the Land Registry into the 21st Century."

Whilst NLIS has been set up and is conducting a series of seminars nationwide, it has a long way to go before being fully operational. Licences have been awarded to three "channels" who will compete to sell on the data at fees to be agreed at a later date (hopefully bringing savings through the use of electronic communication). The successful licence holders are: MacDonald Dettwiler (who also manage the hub itself), Searchflow and Teramedia. They will apparently attempt to differentiate themselves from each other by adding value through extra information and services.

For further information please visit: http://www.nlis.org.uk