I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his remarks. He rightly identified what is often a considerable problem, which the Bill will help to solve. The proposals in part 9 will give someone who has occupied land in good faith a right to apply to be registered. There is a procedure, as he said, to apply to have boundaries fixed. He is also right in thinking that when e-conveyancing is introduced fully it will considerably ease the problem of cross deeds.

Overall, the clause forms the central plank of the Bill's measures to ensure that the register sets out clearly who owns land, with what title and with what powers. It also paves the way for something rather more than clarification and simplification of the existing law. Its central objective is that the register should be as complete and accurate a reflection of the state of title of land at any given time as is reasonably practicable. The clause assists in that aim by providing that a newly registered freehold estate vests in the proprietor, subject only to a severely limited list of interests.

Obviously, the first class of such interests will be those that are the subject of an entry on the register. The second will be when the estate is subject to one of the unregistered interests that override first registration specified in schedule 1, which is one of the reforming parts of the Bill. Clearly, the fewer the interests that can bind someone who acquires an interest in registered land without appearing on the register the better.

It is simply not possible to abolish such interests. With some it would be unreasonable or unreasonably burdensome to expect the person who benefited from them to register—for example, those with short and sometimes completely unwritten leases. With others, it would be practically impossible to require them to be registered—for example, rights to coal and minerals frequently depend on complex analysis of both fact and law before they can be clear.

Interests that do not meet the tests should be removed. Some of the more obscure ones will be phased out after 10 years, although they can be entered on the appropriate register without charge in the interim.

The Bill also contains measures to encourage the registration of interests that do not have to be registered to take effect, and clause 71 imposes an obligation to disclose known unregistered interests so that they can be recorded.

The remaining interests that will bind someone who acquires interest in land are new. They are interests that have been acquired under the Limitation Act 1980 and of which the proprietor has notice. This provision is designed to meet the situation when a squatter has acquired title to the land but is no longer in occupation and the buyer is unaware of the earlier squatting.

The clause and schedule 1 will make a major contribution to simplifying and clarifying the law.

Question put and agreed to.

Clause 11 ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Clauses 12 to 22 ordered to stand part of the Bill.