The main purpose of the Land Registry is to register title to land in England and Wales and record dealings, such as sales and mortgages.

In 1994 Facilities Manager Howard Green, of the Peterborough office, was in charge of finding as new Time & Attendance system for their 500 strong workforce, some of whom were based in London and lawyers who regularly attended the offices.
The new system was to replace a PlanTime system. PlanTime, part of the Securitas group, used a unique set plastic keys which employees put in a lock and turned to log in or out. "The problem with PlanTime was it had moving parts that clogged up or snapped off and was therefore more prone to breakdown," said Howard.

After reviewing several systems, the Land Registry chose Tensor mainly because of the speed and ease of use of Tensor’s Smart Cards. The original system, comprising a Time and Attendance system and access control on the main door, was installed in 1994. It was a DOS based system which Tensor called "P160".

Tensor installed P160 with "no major problems during installation" said Howard. After that Howard described how they had tremendous problems for 12 months with the software. Howard explained that Tensor had to rewrite half the code to get it work the way they wanted and the software was tweaked and adapted to suit their needs.

"To give Tensor their due, they stuck by us and for no extra money got the system working to our satisfaction" said Howard.

In August 1998 the Land Registry upgraded to WinTA with a system that included two T2561 Smart Card clocking stations and four T1081 Smart Card readers, used for time and attendance.

"Tensor’s Smart Cards are quick and simple to use" remarked Howard. "Staff keep their Smart Cards in their bags or jackets and clock in and out — they are also now required to show their Smart Cards for security purposes" he said.

Howard also said

• "We have not had many breakdowns with the hardware in the past"
• "The hardware reliability in the last 10 years has been very good and the WinTA software is fine."
• "Whenever we have had any problems, Tensor are very responsive and most times can solve problems over the phone."

What does the Land Registry do?

Our main purpose is to register title to land in England and Wales and to record dealings (for example, sales and mortgages) with registered land. The Registers of Scotland deal with land in Scotland.

Our principal aims are to maintain and develop a stable and effective land registration system throughout England and Wales as the cornerstone for the creation and free movement of interests in land.

What is the land register?

The land register is a record of all land registrations in England and Wales. Each register of title has its own number (the title number) and is split into three parts:

• The property register describes the property
• The proprietorship register records who owns the property
• The charges register gives details of things like mortgages or rights that may affect the property adversely.
• We also produce a title plan, showing the location and extent of the property. The plan does not normally show who owns the boundary features

Land Registry,
Peterborough Office
Touthill Close
City Road
Peterborough
PE1 IXN