Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average turnaround time is for access codes to be checked when dealing with enquiries where a claimant is subject to Power of Attorney.

When a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) application is registered and dispatched, the donor and attorneys also receive information containing an activation key. This activation key enables the donor and attorneys to create a gov.uk account for the ‘Use my LPA’ service. Using the service, donors and attorneys can create an access code and share it with third parties (e.g. banks, hospitals, other government departments). Third parties can then use the access code to view the LPA online and check if the LPA is valid or not.

The access code is valid for 30 days, after which point the donor or attorneys can request a new access code if the third party has not viewed the LPA during that period. The donor and/or attorneys can see online if the third party has viewed the LPA.

The ‘Use my LPA’ service which donors or attorneys use to create access codes is a live digital service. Third parties then using the code to view LPAs is also a live digital service. There are therefore no average turnaround times for needing to check access codes.