Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the reasons for the continuing delays by the Office of the Public Guardian in granting Lasting Powers of Attorney.

The Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) is facing high demand to register Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPA) applications, including overcoming a backlog created during the pandemic. OPG is advising customers that the processing time for LPA applications is currently up to 20 weeks, including the statutory four-week waiting period.

Delays in processing LPAs have not led to any increased fee for customers who make an LPA application. OPG aims to achieve 100% cost recovery every year. In 2018/19 and 2019/20, OPG achieved 100.7% cost recovery. If full cost recovery is not achieved, then OPG’s costs are underwritten by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). In the past few years full cost recovery has not been achieved, driven by low demand for LPAs during the pandemic. In 2020/21, MoJ provided £18.9m of taxpayer funds, and £9.16m in 2021/22. This financial position is improving and OPG is waiting for the audit to be concluded for financial year 2022/23, which will be published in due course in the OPG annual report.

The Government fully understands that delays in registering and dispatching LPA applications are frustrating for customers. To return to processing times achieved before the pandemic, extra staff have been hired, staff are working overtime and across multiple shift patterns, and process efficiencies have been introduced. The government is also supporting the Powers of Attorney Bill sponsored by Stephen Metcalfe MP. The Bill will enable modernisation of the process for making and registering an LPA, bringing in a new digital channel and improving the paper one. This will create a faster and simpler service for customers and make the system more resilient to future disruption.