Bracknell Forest Council is able to begin work on the backlog of searches it has received since the implementation of a new IT system rendered their search services inoperable.
In an update released last week, the council said it is testing a “workaround” that will allow it to issue personal searches, which had successfully issued “several” searches at the end of last week.
The council said its is now working through the backlog of personal searches in chronological order, adding: “This is not an automatic process and likely to take some time and we thank you for your continued patience. We will you further update once we are clear on how quickly we can clear this.”
Work on issuing official or council searches is ongoing.
The statement added: “The software is in place and working but these take slightly longer to issue as they must be guaranteed by the council.
“This requires extra work and information gathering. We should be able to start working on the backlog of official searches next week (week commencing 25th May) and will go through them in the order we received them.”
The issue first arose in January during the system transfer to new IT provider Arcus. According to the council, the data that feeds to land charge search “was not in a format that can be easily synced with the new system,” resulting in problems mapping the data between systems.
The issues have resulted in a three-month backlog including over 7000 searches according to the council, which is also offering refunds for applications for searches logged since 26th January 2026.
Bracknell Forest has admitted the ability to deliver searches is not a long term fix. “The solution we now have in place is considered a ‘work around’ to the original issue. The work around is highlighting ways in which we can resolve the outstanding issues with our new system.
“However, we are confident that search results are full and accurate. We will continue to work with our supplier to find a long term, permanent solution to the original issue but residents can be confident that the interim fix is providing accurate search results in the meantime.”
