To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what figures her Department holds on the average cost charged by individual local authorities for property searches. (140862)

The Office of Fair Trading 2005 report “Property Searches—A market study” showed the range of prices for LA searches from £55 to £269 with a median price of £119. We are currently looking at ways of updating these data. 50 local authorities have recently reduced the cost of their searches by an average of 20 per cent. in advance of the introduction of Home Information Packs.