The Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) in England and Wales has reported that the average clearance time for power of attorney (POA) applications is now 76 working days, far exceeding its target of 40 days.
This information comes from the OPG’s latest annual report, which highlights longstanding challenges including surging demand, staff shortages, and the impacts of COVID-19 lockdowns.
In the 2022/23 fiscal year, the average time to register and dispatch lasting powers of attorney (LPAs) and enduring powers of attorney (EPAs) was 91 working days. The growing backlog, peaking at 288,100 in August 2023, has significantly hindered efforts to reduce these waiting times.
Despite the ongoing challenges, the OPG has made notable progress. By April 2023, the average wait time had decreased to 80 days, further improving to 62 days for LPAs and EPAs registered and dispatched by March 2024. The backlog of unprocessed LPAs was also reduced by 48% from its August 2023 peak, down to 149,400 by March 2024. This improvement was achieved through expanded office space, increased staffing, enhanced training, and a focus on productivity and process efficiency. This reduction came despite a continued rise in demand, with 1.37 million registration applications received in 2023/24 compared to one million the previous year. Currently, there are over eight million LPAs and EPAs on the register.
The OPG has faced higher demand for investigations, correlating with the increased demand for LPAs and a rise in the supervision caseload to 60,500 cases. Investigations of abuse have risen by 28%, resulting in the OPG missing its target to complete investigations within 70 working days.
Additionally, the OPG’s supervisory role over deputies has expanded to 60,516 clients. However, it reports improvements in obtaining annual reports from deputies, now averaging 33 working days against a target of 40, and reviewing these reports in an average of 11 working days, compared to a target of 15.
A new contact centre and extended phone line operating hours have enabled the OPG to clear its backlog of customer complaints and improve response times significantly. Nonetheless, only 69% of complaints are fully resolved within ten working days, short of the 90% target. Ben Bell, Government Affairs Manager at STEP, commented:
“STEP has informed the OPG of our Global Representative Power (GRP) framework, which was launched to global stakeholders in 2023. An essential feature of our GRP has been to streamline legal processes and template forms to enhance cross-border recognition. We do believe this standardisation can assist in reducing processing burdens not just in the UK but globally.”
