Catalogue description Office of Works and Successors: Property Advisers to the Civil Estate: Deeds Application on PISCES, 1997- 2001: dataset

Hardware: The Deeds Registry Application was run on networked PCs within the PACE Deeds Office. Other departments within PACE were given read-only access to the system.

Operating System: Windows NT.

Application Software: The Deeds Registry Application was developed using SQL Server and Visual Basic and formed part of the main PACE database known as PISCES. The system was originally developed as a Microsoft Access 2.0 database.

User Interface: On screen forms.

Logical structure and schema: The dataset comprises 3 tables: 'Deed', 'Property' and 'Holding' sharing the same key field (pace_property_no). A one to one relationship exists between the tables Deed and Property and a one to many relationship exists between the tables Property and Holding.

How data was originally captured and validated: Data was input directly from the deeds or from other manual records of the deeds held by the department. Checks were carried out on a regular basis to validate the data by line managers responsible for the Deeds Office.

The dataset is dynamic in the sense that once input the details of the deeds recorded in the system could be amended. The system was also used to record the movements of deeds (for example, loans and transfers).

The Deeds Registry Application dataset transferred by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) was used by the Deeds Office of the Property Advisers to the Civil Estate (PACE) to record details of title deeds relating to the Common User Estate. This was largely property that provided general office accommodation which could be used by any government department. The data relating to these deeds was held as a component of PACE's main PISCES database. The Deeds Registry Application, which was developed for the sole use of the PACE Deeds Office, noted the movement of deeds, i.e. as loans, transfers etc. A comprehensive search facility built in to the application enabled searches by property number, deed number, property name, road name, town, county, and deed date.

The application was developed in 1997 by PACE's in-house IT team, and replaced the PHOENIX database then in use. The Deeds Office had traditionally used a manual system of recording information about deeds and gradually transferred details of those records relating to current properties to the PISCES database. The manual recording system was retained for historic and some other properties whose details were not recorded on the PISCES system. These included properties held in the Departmental Estate (properties peculiar to a particular department, i.e. courts, barracks, cold stores etc.).

The Deeds Office closed in 2001 and PACE subsequently became a part of the Office of Government Commerce (OGC). PACE's successor body within OGC is called the Property and Construction Directorate. This dataset represents information created and captured by the PACE prior to the incorporation of this body's work into OGC.