The Land Registry will introduce digital checks it says will cut back on the simple mistakes in names or title numbers on applications that will save customers hundreds of thousands of hours a year.  

It will begin working with third-party integrators on the new service in the autumn and will take several months.   

The new system will spot basic “easily avoidable administrative errors,” with customers prompted to resolve highlighted mistakes before resubmitting documents. 

The software will be available on the digital registration service, on the Land Registry’s portal and through third-party providers. 

The department says: “By 2028 this could save customers an estimated 300,000 hours a year, waiting for an unnecessary, manual, administrative process, and end annoying requisitions that can be resolved much earlier.”  

“This is roughly [the equivalent of] 150 people, working full time, for a year.” 

The service unit adds that many of these checks are already being performed in the digital registration service on its portal and will soon be available for all business gateway-enabled software.   

Land Registry chief transformation & technology officer Mark Gray adds: “By preventing errors up-front, automating routine tasks and removing unnecessary correspondence, we will save time for our customers and our caseworkers alike.  

“And this is just the next step in modernising and automating more of our work, there is much more to come.” 

The move comes as around 3,800 Public and Commercial Services Union registry workers based in 14 offices across England and Wales are “working to rule” as part of a dispute with the department over hours worked from home and other issues.