HM Land Registry Chief Executive Simon Hayes will depart the organisation in September to take up a role with Sport England after six years in post.
With an extensive background in the civil service since 1997, holding several positions across police, criminal justice and immigration policy, Hayes became chief of staff for the UK Border Agency (UKBA) in 2005. In 2008 Hayes became UKBA’s first regional director for the Americas, based in Washington DC, returning to the UK in 2012 to be international director and later director of visas & citizenship at UK Visas and Immigration with responsibility of all visitor, tourist, work, study and citizenship routes, as well as the immigration sponsorship system. He also set up the EU Settlement Scheme for European citizens residing in the UK, which was successfully launched in 2019.
In 2019 Hayes was appointed Chief Executive of HM Land Registry, just a few months before the world was plunged into the COVID-19 lockdown. He has spent much of his tenure tackling sizeable backlogs which were compounded by delays, resourcing and capacity in the COVID years, and after; a task he has acknowledged still has some way to go but with 95% of applications now resolved within 12 months of submission, HMLR is making significant progress. a task he has acknowledged still has some way to go but with 95% of applications now resolved within 12 months of submission, HMLR is making significant progress.
HMLR has also embarked on a digitisation agenda as part of efforts to improve the home buying and selling process.
More recently the agency has dealt with ongoing industrial action after Public and Commercial Services (PCS) unions members voted to work-to-rule in December 2024 over a wider government office return policy which requires staff attend offices for 60% of their time, and what was described at the time as the ‘inappropriate use of personal data and having to accept extra responsibilities without extra pay.’ From January to June of this year PCS Union members refused to cover for their colleagues or take on extra work outside their job description or grade.
On the suspension of industrial action, a HM Land Registry spokesperson said:
“PCS suspended its ‘work to rule’ action at HMLR offices on 11 June. We closely monitored the negligible impact on our services during the period of ‘work of rule’ to ensure that all essential services that support the property market, such as pre-completion searches and registrations (including expedites), were able to continue as normal.”
Following Hayes’ departure in September, an interim Chief Executive will be appointed, before a permanent appointment is ratified by ministers and appointed.
Hayes is the latest in a series of high profile departures from legal regulators and influential bodies. Solicitors Regulation Authority Chief Executive Paul Philip will retire in the Autumn after 12 years with the regulator. It has been confirmed he will be replaced by Sarah Rapson who currently serves as Executive Director Supervision at the Financial Reporting Council.
Alan Kershaw, chair of the Legal Services Board (LSB), stepped down after less than two years in post, citing personal reasons, closely followed by Chief Executive Craig Westwood who also cited personal reasons in his resignation after just a year in post having been appointed in May 2024.
One Response
Hopefully they appoint someone better. Land Registry backlog and turnaround times seem to be a nonsense and full of delays, the Land Registry cannot seemingly do a simple job in a swift time frame (placing a LL restriction on a title for example or a Unilateral Notice), the staff seemingly pick and choose what work they do – Why am I getting applications back within a week for some but others are outstanding for 6-9 months?, We have seen a huge increase in fees for OS1’s, bankruptcy etc. We are seeing more and more boundary errors coming up as a result of MapSearch, what is the Land Registry going to do about that? The Land Registry won’t answer calls on a Friday but we have not seen an increase in service as a result. Can we get a hold of the Land Registry to have a sensible discussion about a point or query a requisition? No. New build and first registrations are a complete disaster with the Land Registry. Whoever comes in needs to talk to Conveyancers, understand our concerns and issues and actually deal with them.