The land registry has decided to get into the 21st century. Which is a good thing, except they have gone the extra mile by replacing signed deeds with electronic documents containing a digital signature. In my belief this will not work – see my August 2003 newsletter for reasons why. The main one being that any punter can use a pen to sign their name but in future your Solicitor will be signing (electronically) on your behalf. So instead of simply pushing some paper around, your solicitor now becomes a signatory in very large transactions.
Final completion of the project has in the last year been put back by four years and the current completion date is 2014-15 a staggering 16-17 years into the project (it all started in 1998). Who knows how many millions will have been spent, and the absurd decision to go for digital signatures may well bring the whole project to its knees.
The most recent project was to introduce a system to create what is called a ‘chain matrix’. This would provide buys and sellers with a web page that tracked the progress of the buying chain typical in house purchase transations. This has been quietly shelved after a £4.6m pilot showed little interest in it.
This summer the digital signature (Private Key Encryption or PKI) part will start to come on-stream. This means lawyers will be signing everything on behalf of their customers. A recent isssue of the Law Gazette quotes David Parton, a very senior conveyancing professional: “‘I also think lawyers will be reluctant to sign on behalf of their clients”. Duh!
Bob Browning's blog 
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