Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the Office of the Public Guardian.

The Public Guardian is appointed by the Lord Chancellor to carry out statutory responsibilities under the Mental Capacity Act 2005. These include registering Lasting Powers of Attorney, supervising deputies and addressing concerns when raised.

The Office of Public Guardian’s (OPG) effectiveness against these responsibilities is kept under review by the Ministry of Justice through various mechanisms based on a proportional approach to the requirements set out in the Cabinet Office’s Arm’s Length Body Sponsorship Code of Good Practice and MoJ/OPG Framework Document.

These include:

• Regular assurance meetings between the OPG executive and the Ministry of Justice’s senior sponsor which review the OPG’s performance, finance and customer satisfaction metrics as well as other data to assure itself that OPG is operating efficiently and effectively.
• Public Bodies Reviews, the most recent of which reported in May 2024: Office of the Public Guardian review 2023 to 2024; and
• The review and publication of OPG’s annual reports which provide data on the OPG’s annual performance: Office of the Public Guardian – Annual report and accounts 2025 to 2026.