Plymouth team win prestigious award

News Desk
Authored by News Desk
Posted: Thursday, November 19, 2015 - 09:55

A virtual team, based primarily in Plymouth, has been awarded for their work at the Civil Service awards ceremony held at Buckingham Palace on 12 November.

Land Registry won the Digital Award for its work on the MapSearch project, reducing its huge volume of paper transactions by offering customers digital alternatives – making the transactions faster and cheaper for the Government and its customers.

MapSearch is a free-to-use digital service launched in March 2014 which offers a digital alternative to the Search of the Index Map (SIM). SIM is a paid-for, paper service which can be used to discover if land is registered and obtain title numbers – something that is essential in the conveyancing process. The team’s work saved customers £1.6 million in fees over 12 months.

Sir Jeremy Heywood, Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service, said: “There has never been a better time to celebrate the achievements of the Civil Service. All of tonight’s winners and nominees can be proud of the impact they have had on people’s lives. They are the perfect combination of the modern, fast-moving, evidence-based public service with the traditional Civil Service values of honesty, integrity, objectivity and impartiality.

“With the awards now in their 10th year, I continue to be inspired, but not surprised, by the passion, imagination and ingenuity of my colleagues across the whole of the UK.”

Winner of the award, Chief Executive and Chief Land Registrar, Graham Farrant, said: "We are delighted that another one of our digital services has won a prestigious Civil Service Award for a second year in a row! MapSearch is a fantastic service that has not only saved our customers time and money but has opened up new possibilities that would not have been possible before this new service.

"With this second Civil Service Award under our belt we are going to continue onwards with our digital journey, proud in the knowledge that what we are doing is making a real difference to the property market in England and Wales."

The Civil Service Awards, celebrating their 10th anniversary, are a highly prestigious cross-government programme to recognise and celebrate the work of dedicated teams and individuals within the Civil Service. For the last 10 years, these unique and empowering awards have helped to spread best practice right across government, sharing innovation, learning and leadership.

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