The Mental Capacity Act 2005 – Updates
The Mental Capacity Act 2005 came fully into force on 1 October 2007.The OPG announced its intention to review the implementation of the Act after one year to ensure its aims and ambitions were being met in practice.
In a previous Consultation, ‘Reviewing the Mental Capacity Act 2005: Forms, Supervision and Fees’ the new simpler Lasting Power of Attorney forms were introduced.
In the most recent consultation paper, which was the next step in the review process two Statutory Instruments were laid in Parliament which are due to come into force on the 1 May 2010.
The changes made are summarised below:
- A reduction in the security bond discovery period after the client’s death from 7 to 2 years for all new bonds taken out on or after 1 May 2010
- Adding Local Housing Allowance to the list of benefits that qualify a customer for exemption from payment of OPG fees
- Allowing the Public Guardian to investigate EPA attorneys together with other interested parties should the need arise
- Clarifying that a certified copy of an EPA will only be accepted if the original cannot be produced due to its being lost or destroyed
- Amending the ‘Application for registering an EPA’ form to allow for the registration of a certified copy only if the original cannot be produced due to its being lost or destroyed
- Amending the ‘Notice of intention to apply for registration of an Enduring Power of Attorney’ form to require attorneys who are not joining in the application to register an EPA to be named.
The changes will mean that new and amended versions of forms EP1PG ‘Notice of intention to apply for registration of an Enduring Power of Attorney’, EP2PG ‘Application to register an Enduring Power of Attorney’ and OPG506A ‘Application for a fee exemption or remission’ will be issued on the 1 May 2010 and will be available for download from the OPG website.
Previous versions of these forms will continue to be accepted by the OPG until the 1 November 2010. After this date however, only the new versions of these forms will be accepted.