Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to require the Office of the Public Guardian to notify all nominated persons when a (a) power of attorney and (b) lasting power of attorney is made.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
General, otherwise known as ordinary, powers of attorney are governed by the Powers of Attorney Act 1971. They allow a donor to give power to an attorney to manage their affairs for a defined period of time. There is no requirement to name or notify nominated persons and the Public Guardian is not involved in the process. Powers of attorney are an important mechanism for supporting agency arrangements, often in a commercial context, and there are no plans to change this arrangement to require notification of nominated persons.
Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPAs) are governed by the Mental Capacity Act 2005 which requires that any nominated persons are notified at the point when an application is made to the Office of the Public Guardian to register the LPA. An application to register an LPA can be made either by the donor or by one or more attorneys named in the LPA. Currently, it is the applicant’s responsibility to notify any nominated persons. The Public Guardian maintains a register of all registered LPAs and anyone can request a free search to check if there is a registered LPA for a relative or friend.
The Powers of Attorney Act 2023, when implemented, will improve the process for notification and objections for LPAs. The Public Guardian will in future be responsible for issuing notices to the donor, their attorneys and any persons to be notified that the LPA has been received for registration and appears to be validly made. Furthermore, anyone who is aware that an LPA is being made will be able to object to its registration at an earlier stage in the process if they have concerns. These changes will strengthen the existing safeguards in the system.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to tackle (a) fraud and (b) misuse of Lasting Power of Attorney.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Under the Mental Capacity Act 2005, execution of a lasting power of attorney (LPA) must be witnessed and a certificate provider must confirm that the donor understands the powers they are conferring on their attorney or attorneys and is not being coerced to make the LPA. A mandatory 4-week period must elapse before registration, allowing time for objections to be raised prior to registration.
Following consultation on ways to strengthen these protections, my department is working with the Office of the Public Guardian to implement a modernised LPA, facilitated by the Powers of Attorney Act 2023.
The modernised LPA will introduce identity checks for donors and certificate providers to reduce the risk that an unknown party could obtain an LPA in another person’s name without their knowledge. The certificate provider will be required to be present at execution of the LPA by the donor and a more streamlined objection process will allow anyone to object, making it easier for potential abuses to be challenged earlier in the process. These measures collectively should reduce the risk of fraudulent LPAs and abuse of the powers they confer.
Once the LPA is registered, any concerns about its use can be reported to the Office of the Public Guardian, which has authority to investigate. It can, if necessary, ask the court to remove the power for an attorney to act.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of reviewing general practice funding streams to account for potential additional resource requirements in socio-economically deprived communities.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is committed to ensuring patients living in deprived areas have access to good health care. The Carr-Hill formula, which is used to calculate core funding for practices, reflects differences in the age and sex composition of the practice’s registered patient list, together with a range of factors that take into account the additional pressures generated by differential rates of patient turnover, morbidity, mortality, and the impact of geographical location. Under this formula, practices whose registered patients have greater healthcare needs are paid more per patient than practices whose registered patients have fewer healthcare needs.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, when he last met with the Secretary of State for Business and Trade to discuss the sale of arms to Israel.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The Foreign Secretary continues to discuss all aspects of the current conflict in Israel with the Secretary of State for Business and Trade.
All export licence applications are assessed on a case-by-case basis against the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, what steps his Department is taking to (a) investigate and (b) verify claims on Israel's compliance with international law.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The Foreign Secretary has now reviewed the most recent advice about the situation in Gaza and Israel, and the latest assessment leaves our position on export licences unchanged.
As ever, we will keep the position under review. We will continue to use this robust legal process to assess these issues.