Lasting Powers of Attorney Consultation

Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPAs) have become increasingly popular since they were first introduced in 2009 to replace Enduring Powers of Attorney. LPAs are used to give others authority to make decisions and act on your behalf both in relation to financial affairs and health and welfare decisions. They are produced on a standard form, which has evolved over the years. They started out as a form approaching 30 pages long but are now down to 16. The Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) which deals with the registration of LPAs has generally listened to feedback and learnt from its own experience to improve the forms. It also recognises that people want to be able to access services digitally but that needs to be balanced by providing adequate safeguards, given the nature of an LPA.

On 20th July 2021 the Ministry of Justice launched a public consultation on modernising LPASand in particular to look at:

• The role of witnesses and safeguards for remote witnessing.
• The application for the registration process and how to reduce the number of applications rejected.
• Whether the OPGs powers should be widened to carry out checks such as ID.
• Changes to how people can object to registration and on what basis.
• The speed of the service and whether to introduce a fast track service for urgent cases. (It currently takes 2 to 3 months to register an LPA).

The consultation will run for 12 weeks to 13th October. You can find out more about this and provide responses can be made using the following link:  Ministry of Justice – Modernising Lasting Powers of Attorney

Here at Bright Solicitors, we are regularly involved in the preparation and registration of LPAs, a service which we offer for a fixed fee. To find out more about LPAs and the service we offer please use the following links:
Powers of Attorney  
LPAs