Ministers are withholding key information about their plans for the Land Registry, the Public and Commercial Services union says.
This means the government's consultation on planned changes to the agency is flawed and it will be impossible for the public and businesses to reach an informed view, the union says.
In its submission to the consultation sent today (19th February), the union adds the government has failed to say why the changes are proposed, and notes the Land Registry has a customer satisfaction rating of 98%, operates at no cost to the taxpayer and made £98.8 million last year.
The union is concerned that proposals to turn the registry currently run as a self-financing civil service 'trading fund' into a government-owned company is a first step towards full privatisation.
Detailed information about a new operating model including proposed changes to the size and shape of the organisation is missing from the consultation document, however, and to date ministers have refused the union's requests to publish it.
The union has written to business secretary Vince Cable to ask him to make the full plans public.
Other issues the union raises in its submission include:
- The risks and disadvantages of running the 150-year-old system of land registration for profit, instead of as a public service, and the implications for data security
- Grave concerns about the Treasury losing control over what surpluses can be retained and what can be done with them
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "Not only have ministers failed to make the case for change, they are withholding key information and denying the public and businesses the chance to reach an informed view.
"Far from being the most transparent ever, this looks more like smoke and mirrors from a government preparing to gift a trusted 150-year-old institution to a private company."
For further information contact:
Tony Conway
PCS Industrial Officer
Group Secretary Land Registry Group
0121 643 4342
Mobile: 07803501639
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