Recent articles and letters about the new lasting powers of attorney (LPAs) introduced by the Mental Capacity Act on 1 October have not told the full story.


LPAs were developed following extensive public consultation and discussion with stakeholders, including solicitors, and representatives of many large mental health and older people charities. There is significant support for LPAs because they give people more choice to plan ahead for the future and have safeguards that help to protect some of the most vulnerable in society.



Also, claims that the LPA forms were not available until just before 1 October are unfounded. The forms were laid before Parliament on 17 April 2007 and have been publicly available since then via several government websites and also in hard copy. In fact, a Gazette notice from the Public Guardianship Office on 30 August specifically drew readers' attention to the changes and where the forms could be obtained.



There have also been comments about the potential increase in solicitors' charges to draw up an LPA of anything from £350 to £1,000. This has been linked to the increased length of the LPA forms and the assumption that this makes them more difficult to fill in. This is not true. The forms have been carefully designed on the basis of extensive public consultation and usability tests with the intention that many people will be able to fill them in without requiring legal assistance. The new forms now contain many of the options that a solicitor might have added into an enduring power of attorney (EPA) for a person. This enables people to decide what they want to put into their LPA as they go along, which gives the public greater flexibility and choice.



The additional requirement for a certificate to be provided to confirm that, at the time the power was drawn up, the donor was fully aware of what they were doing and no undue pressure was being placed on them to make the LPA, is an important safeguard. A range of people, including someone who has known the donor for at least two years, can provide the certificate, so it does not follow that this should always mean an additional cost for people.



Furthermore, this increase in cost relates almost exclusively to solicitors' fees, because the actual cost of registering an LPA with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) is £150, compared with an EPA which costs £120. The slight increase reflects the additional safeguards put in place to address some of the shortcomings of EPAs and to protect vulnerable people from the potential for fraud and abuse. The LPA forms are available for free from the OPG and the £150 fee is only payable on registration.



Bridget Prentice MP, Justice Minister, Ministry of Justice, London