Guardianship (Missing Persons) Bill

Baroness Chakrabarti Excerpts

2nd reading (Hansard): House of Lords
Thursday 6th April 2017 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chakrabarti (Lab)]

My Lords, what a privilege to follow the hard work and moving speech of the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee. We on these Benches are more than happy to support the Bill at its Second Reading. It provides a much-needed remedy to the sometimes devastating financial and legal problems faced by the families of missing persons as a result of a gap in the law, which has remained unfilled for far too long.

As we have heard, each year more than 80,000 adults are reported missing to British police forces. Mercifully, most are found safe and well within the first week but around 4,000 remain missing for more than seven days and up to 1,500 adults are missing for longer than a year.

For the families left in limbo, the pain of not knowing where their loved one is or what has happened to them is compounded by a range of serious practical, financial and legal difficulties as the result of a disappearance. The vanishing of the individual has no legal impact on the person’s obligations and commitments. As a result, their affairs may be unmanaged and unprotected for the duration of their absence. Without a court mandate, institutions such as banks or insurance agencies are limited in how they can deal with those left behind. This can have disastrous repercussions, particularly for those who have shared assets or liabilities with the missing person, or for those financially dependent on them.

The creation of a new legal status of guardian of the property and affairs of the missing person would mean that families had an alternative and more immediate recourse when seeking to protect the financial and legal interests of their loved one. Under current law, in the Presumption of Death Act 2013, family members must wait a minimum of seven years before application can be made for a declaration that a missing person is presumed dead and their property can pass to others. Under the Bill, applications can be made after 90 days following a disappearance, and the court would be able to tailor the terms of the appointment of a guardian to the circumstances of the missing individual.

The charity Missing People has been campaigning to fill the gap for nearly six years, launching its Missing Rights campaign in 2011. Your Lordships will remember that, following calls for reform, the coalition Government launched a consultation in 2014, and in 2015 confirmed that they would legislate to create a new legal status of “guardian of the property and affairs of a missing person”. Despite a Written Statement from the then Justice Minister, the noble Lord, Lord Faulks, in which he expressed his hope that legislation would be brought forward without delay in the new Parliament, it failed to materialise. Today, however, by means of this Private Member’s Bill and through the admirable hard work of Kevin Hollinrake MP in the House of Commons and the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, resolution for families left behind is finally in sight. We owe a substantial debt of gratitude to both parliamentarians.

This much-needed legislation would plug a legal lacuna that has been acknowledged by the previous Government, the present Ministry of Justice and, as of late March, honourable Members in the other place. Support for the Bill in its current form has also been expressed by a variety of stakeholders including the charities Missing People, Prisoners Abroad, Hostage UK and the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

As my colleague in the other place, Richard Burgon, said at the first sitting of Committee on the Bill:

“We must not drag our heels”,—[Official Report, Commons, Guardianship (Missing Persons) Bill Committee, 21/2/17; col. 5.]


when there is political consensus on the need for and appropriateness of this legislation. So I urge your Lordships to lend support to this fine Bill and to help ease at least the practical burdens—if not, unfortunately, the ongoing emotional suffering—of those families who continue to wait for news of a loved one or their return.

Finally, if I may, I thank all of your Lordships for your company and courtesy, and for the enormous contribution that you have made to the life of this country in recent weeks and months. I wish you all a very happy Easter with your own families.