Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to improve the process of property searches to speed up home buying and selling.

As part of our work to improve the home buying and selling process, the Government sets an expectation that all local authorities will turn around searches in 10 working days, and the latest data shows that 87% of local authorities are meeting this target. We are aware that authorities have worked hard to maintain this service during this difficult period

In addition, HM Land Registry is implementing a digital national register of Local Land Charges and provision of property searches will improve as this process covers more local authorities.