I often use blogs to share questions I have been asked relating to Advance Care Planning of Lasting Power of Attorney. This week’s blog is in relation to a recent question from a previous colleague: how can I find out of someone has a Lasting Power of Attorney? Many thanks for submitting and read on for answer.

I’ll begin the blog as ever with a quick recap of what a Lasting Power of Attorney is, explain who receives the Lasting Power of Attorney before moving on to answering the question.

Before closing I will also share how to find out if someone has an attorney or deputy.

What is a Lasting Power of Attorney?

A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) is a legal document that enables you to nominate a person or people to support you to make decisions or make decisions on your behalf if you lose capacity. There are two different types of LPA, one for Health & Welfare and one for Property & Finance. Without a Lasting Power of Attorney in place, a next of in has no legal authority for decision making.

A Lasting Power of Attorney is a good part of planning ahead for everyone and is made when you have capacity; once capacity has been lost it is too late to create a Lasting Power of Attorney.

The person making a Lasting Power of Attorney is called the donor and people the donor nominates to support them to make decisions are called attorneys.

You can access a free information sheet explain more about Lasting Power of Attorney here.

Who receives a copy of a registered Lasting Power of Attorney?

When a Lasting Power of Attorney is registered the person nominated as correspondent will receive the validated document. You will know it is validated if there are perforations on the bottom of each page, as shown in the example below.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/lasting-power-of-attorney-valid-examples

How can I find out of someone has a Lasting Power of Attorney?

To find out if a person has a registered Lasting Power of Attorney you can apply to search the Office of the Public Guardian website. You can access the website here

https://www.gov.uk/find-someones-attorney-deputy-or-guardian

You will need to complete a form OPG100 and send the completed form to the Office of the Public Guardian by email or post, the addresses for both are below.

Email: opgregistersearches@publicguardian.gov.uk. Please write ‘Registers’ as the subject
Post: Office of the Public Guardian, PO Box 16185, Birmingham. B2 2WH

The service is free and the Office of the Public Guardian aim to respond in five working days.

How to submit an enquiry if your request is urgent

There will be times when waiting for a request to be processed if not viable, for example when an adult is at risk or there is a potential safeguarding need.

If your request is urgent, you can email the Office of the Public Guardian using the following template.[i]

Dear OPG

I am requesting a search of the OPG registers to help safeguard an adult at risk. I cannot get the information from the individual as they do not have mental capacity.

Please search the OPG registers for any information about this person:

Name:
Date of Birth:
Address:

Send the email to: OPGurgent@publicguardian.gov.uk

Subject line: Initial safeguarding enquiry’ or ‘Urgent enquiries’ as appropriate
Include: Your email signature including your job title and team name
Emails MUST be from an accredited email address, for example NHS, police and local authorities

[1]Details for this blog has been accessed from https://www.gov.uk/guidance/urgent-enquiries-check-if-someone-has-an-attorney-or-deputy Please check for up to date information

If you have a question about Advance Care Planning or Lasting Power of Attorney, or find out more about my Lasting Power of Attorney service contact me