Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of the safeguards to prevent the misuse of searches of the Office of the Public Guardian Registers by offenders to find the location of their past victims.

The Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) does not provide location information in the results of register searches. The information given is limited to whether a power of attorney, deputyship order or guardianship order is in place, and the scope and nature of the power. The OPG cannot conduct a search of a register unless the requestor provides the address of the donor of the power or of the person subject to the Court order. A request without this information would deliver a “no result” response.