What is a lasting power of attorney

What a lasting power of attorney is

A lasting power of attorney is a document by which one person, the donor, gives one or more attorneys authority to decide for them. Under section 9 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 that authority covers the donor’s personal welfare, their property and affairs, or both, and reaches decisions taken once the donor no longer has capacity. That last part is why an LPA is made while nothing is wrong.

Section 9(2) sets 3 conditions. The donor must be 18 or over and have capacity when they sign, the instrument must comply with section 10 and Schedule 1, and it must be registered. An instrument failing any of them confers no authority. Section 9 is marked E+W, so it runs in England and Wales only, and a property and affairs LPA reaches only assets there.

The two types of LPA

A donor can make one or both.

Type	What it covers	When an attorney can use it
Health and welfare	Daily care, medical treatment, where the donor lives, and life-sustaining treatment where the instrument says so	Only once the donor cannot make the decision themselves
Property and financial affairs	Bank accounts, bills, benefits, investments, buying and selling property	As soon as it is registered, with the donor’s permission

The timing is the part people get backwards. gov.uk’s power of attorney guide puts a financial LPA in use from registration, with the donor’s permission, which is what makes it work during a long hospital stay.

Choosing attorneys, jointly or jointly and severally

Section 10 requires an attorney to be an individual aged 18 or over, or a trust corporation where the power covers property and affairs only. Anyone bankrupt or subject to a debt relief order is barred from the financial role.

With more than one attorney, the instrument says whether they act jointly, jointly and severally, or jointly for some matters and severally for others. Say nothing and section 10(5) assumes joint, so every decision needs unanimity. Under section 10(6) one joint attorney failing a section 10 or Schedule 1 requirement means no LPA is created at all, whereas section 10(7) leaves a jointly and severally drafted power short only that appointment.

Who can be the certificate provider, and who is disqualified

Every LPA needs a certificate provider, who confirms the donor understands what they are signing and is not under pressure. Regulation 8 of the 2007 regulations allows two routes, either someone who has known the donor personally for at least 2 years ending immediately before the certificate is signed, or a professional such as a registered health care professional, solicitor, registered social worker or independent mental capacity advocate.

Regulation 8(3) then names who cannot, which is where applications come back:

• a family member of the donor, or of an attorney
• an attorney under this or any other power the donor has executed, revoked or not
• a business partner or employee of the donor or of an attorney
• a director or employee of a trust corporation acting as attorney
• the owner, director, manager or employee of any care home the donor lives in, and their family members

The care home entry catches people acting in good faith, since a manager who has known a resident for years is barred outright. Attorneys can witness each other but not the donor, and everyone signs the same original, because copies and digital signatures are not accepted.

What registering an LPA costs, £92 or £184

gov.uk’s power of attorney fees publication records the rise from £82 to £92 on 17 November 2025. The registration page prices the rest.

What	Fee
Registering one LPA	£92
Registering both types	£184
Applying again after a correctable mistake, within 3 months	£46
Donor’s income before tax under £12,000 a year	Half the fee, a 50% remission
Donor on certain means-tested benefits when the application is made	Nothing, an exemption

A donor on Universal Credit is assessed for the remission, not the exemption. Payment is due when applying and no fee is refundable, so a reduction claim goes in with the application or not at all. That £92 covers registration only, and drafting by a solicitor is billed separately against the firm’s published hourly rate.

How long registration takes, 8 to 10 weeks or 45 days

Three official numbers, and they do not agree.

Source	Figure
gov.uk, register a lasting power of attorney	8 to 10 weeks if there are no mistakes
gov.uk, manage a lasting power of attorney	Up to 16 weeks
Public Guardian annual report 2025 to 2026	45 day average wait, down from 49

The 45 days is measured, not promised, against a published commitment of 40 working days, and the same report counts 1,589,500 applications in 2025 to 2026 and more than 10 million powers on the register by October 2025.

The 3 week objection window and the 4 week wait

Before the application goes in, the donor sends form LP3 to everyone named as a person to notify, and regulation 14(2) gives them 3 weeks from that notice to object.

Regulation 12 sets the other clock. With no objection and no defect, the Public Guardian must register at the end of 4 weeks beginning with the date it gave notice of receiving the application, a duty rather than a discretion under Schedule 1 paragraph 5.

The forms differ by objector. A donor uses LPA006, an attorney or person to be told uses LPA007 free of charge, and a prescribed objection such as lost capacity, a faked signature or pressure needs LPA008 plus COP7 to the Court of Protection. Anyone else uses COP1 with a £432 cheque payable to HM Courts and Tribunals Service.

What an attorney can and cannot decide

A registered LPA is stamped validated-OPG, and nothing before that stamp carries authority.

Health and welfare authority is narrower than it looks. Section 11(7) confines it to circumstances where the donor lacks capacity or the attorney reasonably believes they do, and makes it subject to any advance decision to refuse treatment. Section 11(8)(a) withholds authority over life-sustaining treatment unless the instrument says so expressly.

Financial attorneys carry duties as much as powers, keeping the donor’s money separate from their own unless they already share an account, keeping records, and never using the position to benefit themselves.

Proving the authority to a bank is the daily problem. Companies can check attorneys through the View a lasting power of attorney service with a 13 character access code beginning with V, one per LPA and only for documents registered on or after 1 January 2016. Otherwise a donor with capacity can certify a copy in the prescribed wording on every page, or a solicitor can certify it.

Deputyship, guardianship and controllership, the cost of no LPA

Without one, the family applies to a court and pays for it. Supervised deputyships rose 5.6% in a year, from 61,038 to 64,456.

Jurisdiction	Route	To apply	Every year after
England and Wales	Court of Protection deputy	£432, twice for both types, plus £266 for a hearing and £100 for a new deputy assessment	£320 general supervision or £35 minimal, plus a security bond
Scotland	Sheriff court guardianship order	£110 to register it with the Public Guardian	Management plan and inventory priced on estate value, from £68 to £1,544
Northern Ireland	High Court controller	£326 commencement, then £189 on appointment	£407 with funds out of court, or £570 where the Court Funds Office holds them

Supervision fees in England and Wales are reduced or waived where the person the deputy acts for gets certain benefits or has an income below £12,000.

How an LPA ends

A donor with capacity ends an LPA by sending the Public Guardian the original and a deed of revocation, in the wording gov.uk prints. It ends on its own if an attorney loses capacity, divorces the donor, goes bankrupt while acting on property and finances, is removed by the Court of Protection, or dies. The donor’s death ends it outright, and the estate passes to the executors.

Continuing and welfare powers of attorney in Scotland

Scotland runs on the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000 and none of the English vocabulary transfers. There is no lasting power of attorney, only a continuing power of attorney for property and financial affairs and a welfare power of attorney for personal welfare. One document can confer both, and the person making it is the granter.

The certificate is the sharpest difference. Section 15(3) makes a continuing power valid only if it is written, subscribed by the granter, states the intention that the power continue, and carries a prescribed certificate from a practising solicitor or another prescribed class who interviewed the granter immediately before signing and is satisfied they understand the power and are free of undue influence. There is no 2 year friend route, so a Scottish power of attorney is in practice solicitor’s work, and the firms on the Glasgow list answer to the Law Society of Scotland, not the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Section 19(1) is the other hard rule. Neither attorney has authority until the document is registered with the Office of the Public Guardian (Scotland), so an unregistered financial power cannot be used at all. Registration costs £99, up from £96 under the 2026 fees regulations. On the welfare side, section 16(6) stops an attorney placing the granter in hospital for treatment of mental disorder against their will.

Enduring powers of attorney in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland has no lasting power of attorney. Part 5 of the Mental Capacity Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 creates one, but section 97 is marked prospective on legislation.gov.uk as at 7 September 2026, so it is not the law anyone in Belfast is operating under.

What exists is the enduring power of attorney under the Enduring Powers of Attorney (Northern Ireland) Order 1987, and an EPA there covers financial matters only, so there is no health and welfare equivalent.

The mechanics run the other way round. A Northern Irish EPA takes effect as soon as the attorney signs, unless the donor wrote in conditions, and registration waits until the attorney thinks the donor is becoming incapable. Article 6 then requires an application to the court as soon as practicable, having served the Schedule 1 notices. Objections must reach the court within 5 weeks of the latest notice, on the article 8(5) grounds, which include prematurity and an unsuitable attorney.

The court is the High Court, through the Office of Care and Protection in Belfast, and the Department of Justice prices registration on form EP2 at £189, a register search at £33 and a copy at £17. Solicitors doing this work answer to the Law Society of Northern Ireland, which is why the Belfast list shows no Solicitors Regulation Authority numbers.