Clause 66 - Inspection of the registers etc
Land Registration Bill [Lords]
12:50 pm
Mr William Cash (Stone, Conservative)
The object of the amendment is to restrict the availability of information that individuals may consider private or that companies may consider commercially confidential. Land Registry records have only been open to general inspection for less than 20 years. At the time that the change removing confidentiality was made, an undertaking was given to safeguard the privacy of people's private and commercial information by not disclosing the contents of leases and charges. There is good reason for that. However, I regret to say that the Government propose to remove those safeguards and to allow access to leases and mortgages, both residential and commercial.
I expect the Minister to say that rules in this matter follow the policy that underlies the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The presumption is to supply a copy of the information unless it falls within the exceptions of commercial confidentiality and data protection. Will the Minister explain how a determination will be made to establish whether documents fall into that category? Will certification by a solicitor that the document is commercially confidential be sufficient, or does the Land Registry intend to make its own determination? It is understood that these matters will be discussed when the rules are discussed, but we would like some indication of the Government's thinking at this stage.