Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the correspondence of the hon. Member for Cardiff West to his Department of 26 June 2018, ref MC57534, on account of which key Government priorities the officials working on the guardianship legislation have not been able to complete the preparation of that legislation.

The Government is committed to bringing the Guardianship (Missing Persons) Act 2017 into force as soon as possible. This depends upon the creation of the necessary secondary legislation and administrative systems in the courts and the Office of the Public Guardian to define and support the working of the new procedure.

The officials responsible for the implementation of the guardianship legislation work on a wide range of subjects, but the delay in the drafting of the secondary legislation is primarily due to work on the reform of the law relating to the personal injury discount rate. The Civil Liability Bill, which will implement this reform, was passed by the House of Lords on 27 June and introduced into the House of Commons on 28 June. The provisions in the Bill relating to the rate were preceded by public consultation and pre-legislative scrutiny.