Unexplained parish software glitch has now been fixed

The fault – which remains unexplained to the parish – has now been fixed but Mr Leale said he wanted to explain why the parish's normal good service had been compromised. 

The issue was caused by something called Lapis, which is a online system provided by Digimap and is based on Cadastre transaction records which have been matched to corresponding Greffe conveyance and plan documents dating back to 1950.

This allows authorised users to access Cadastre land and property records and also view scanned images of property conveyance documents (deeds) and plans registered at H.M. Greffe.

Using this information enables users to verify details of property ownership, TRP assessments and unit values and also download and print Cadastre notification letters, Greffe registered conveyance documents and plans.

As such, it is a vital tool for the parish and other users, like advocates checking property details and any liabilities such as unpaid rates, or States Water looking to bill customers.

Out of our hands
Mr Leale said the outage had nothing to do with the parish but he wanted to explain that the disruption caused and the time it took to restore the system were completely outside of their hands.

"It's very frustrating to have to say this, but having flagged the issue with the States, Agilisys, who maintain it for government, and our own IT support providers, it still took two weeks to resolve something that is actually 'mission critical' for us and the way we operate," he said.

"At one stage, we were told that the person who deals with Lapis was on holiday. It that is correct, it suggests there is a back-up issue that needs to be addressed with some urgency."

Lapis is owned and paid for by the 10 parishes, others of which also apparently experienced problems, but also used by the States and the Cadastre department. Although the system belongs to the parishes, they do not have access to change the data in it. That rests with the States.

About Agilisys...
It is working in partnership with the States of Guernsey to deliver SMART Guernsey. For more than 20 years it has partnered with UK public sector organisations to unlock the potential of technology and transform the services that improve lives.

The States says that SMART Guernsey will use developments in a range of technologies including cloud computing, data science, robotics and the latest IT software to improve how services are delivered. "The aim is for States of Guernsey, with input from the community and stakeholders, to be the best public service of any small jurisdiction," it says on its website.