The Power of Attorney Act 2023 was given Royal Assent on 18 September 2023. This new legislation creates new safeguards to protect against fraud and abuse. This is hopefully the start of changes to create a completely digital platform to improve processing times; reduce the possibilities of human error and evolve with the constant changes in technology and societal growth. We await the further legislation needed to progress with full digitalisation of the Power of Attorney system.
This Act has provided for multiple changes including changes to the Schedule 1 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 including:
- Allowing Legal Executives the ability to certify copies of power of attorneys.
- By making registration only available to the Donor and omitting the responsibility for an attorney.
- The Office of Public Guardian taking responsibility for informing people whereas previously this was the obligation of the person registering the document.
The new legislation also allows an electronic form of the document to be used as evidence of the registered document. This would simply allow a donor to provide an activation key supplied by the Office of the Public Guardian to other institutions such as banks so that they can access your attorney online rather than having to provide certified hard copies of your documents.
Not all of the changes come in to force immediately and we look forward to reading the Statutory Instruments made by the Lord Chancellor in due course to continue this area of law evolving.