The latest Family Court statistics bulletin shows that the Court of Protection’s workload shows no signs of diminishing. 

For example, 38,945 orders were made under the MCA last year an increase of nearly 50% on 2016. However, the report authors ascribe some of that increase to a “clearance of outstanding cases during the first quarter of 2017, and volumes have increased generally due to improved recording of orders made by  regional courts."

Over a third (40%) of the orders made related to the appointment of a deputy for property and affairs

The number of LPAs received also rose, with 180,210 received in the last quarter of the year up 18% on the equivalent quarter in 2016. Over the entire year, the increase was 28%, though there has been a drop in the two most recent quarters. 

There were 2,552 Enduring Powers of Attorney (EPAs) in October to December 2017, down 5% on the same quarter in 2016. Annually, there was also a decrease of 7% in 2017 compared to 2016, continuing the long-term downward trend. The table below illustrates this point.

The full report can be found on the GOV.UK website.

The Ministry of Justice has announced the launch of its refund scheme for people who paid power of attorney registration fees between 1 st April 2013 and 31 st March 2017.

The move is necessary because, in the MoJ's words,

“During this period, the Office of the Public Guardian’s (OPG) operating costs came down as more people applied to register a power of attorney and the process became more efficient, but the application fee charged was not reduced in line with this.”

The refunds can be claimed online at a dedicated website and apply to any lasting powers of attorney (LPA) and enduring powers of attorney (EPA) made in England and Wales.

The amount of the refund depends on when the fees were paid as follows:. 

• April to September 2013: £54
• October 2013 to March 2014: £34
• April 2014 to March 2015: £37
• April 2015 to March 2016: £38
• April 2016 to March 2017: £45

Interest can be claimed added at 0.5% 

Claims for a refund can be lodged by:

• the ‘donor’ - the person who made the power of attorney
• an ‘attorney’ - appointed by the donor in an LPA or EPA

but the refund must be paid to the donor.

To find out more visit the website: https://www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney-refund

The number of deprivation of liberty applications and orders made continues to rise according to the latest official Family Court statistics.

The statistics show that 1,077 applications were made between July and September this year, up 38% on the number made in the same period in 2016. The number of orders made rose over 57% from 362 to 569 respectively.

There were 8,049 applications made under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA), up 4% on the equivalent quarter in 2016 (7,762 applications), of which nearly half were for appointment of a property and affairs deputy.
 
The continued growth in LPAs also shows no sign of abating, with 193,285 received in July to September 2017, up 32%. 

The full set of statistics together with supporting tables can be found on the Gov.uk statistics page.

Amendments to the Court of Protection Rules 2007 and a raft of changes to the accompanying Practice Directions have been published. 

An an accompanying explanatory memorandum published on the Judiciary website states that:

"7.1 Amendments to the Court of Protection Rules are long overdue: no comprehensive update of rules has been done since they were first introduced in 2007, and there have been only very limited amendments in 2009 and 2011, and some more substantial amendments in 2015. The changes made by this instrument will strengthen the Court of Protection’s powers to deal with current challenges particularly the increase in caseloads and complexity of cases.

7.2 The proposed rule changes will give the court greater powers, following the model of the Civil Procedure Rules providing for civil restraint orders, to deal with applications which are without merit and allow the court, for instance, to restrain litigants from submitting repeat applications. Further changes will also introduce a new framework for international applications that will reflect current practices and case law in cross jurisdictional cases and bring clarity and consistency to the making of such applications which is now needed as these types of cases are emerging more frequently. "

The Court of Protection (Amendment) Rules 2017 (SI 2017 no. 187) amend the 2007 Rules in two respects:

1. they insert provision for the making by the Court of Protection of civil restraint orders (a civil restraint order being an order against a person who has brought proceedings which are totally without merit from bringing further proceedings without the court’s permission).
2. they insert a new Part making provision for applications in relation to international protection of adults pursuant to Schedule 3 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. 

These changes come into effect on 6 April 2017

Alongside these rule changes several changes to the Practice Directions are in force as set out below: 

• 1 March 2017: Transparency pilot & PD 9E – Applications relating to serious medical treatment
  
• 1 April 2017:  Practice Direction B - Fixed Costs in the Court of Protection 
• 6 April 2017: PD 10AA – Deprivation of liberty applications; PD 13A – Hearings (including reporting restrictions); PD 23C – Civil restraint orders; PD 24A – International protection of adults 

The amendments to the Practice Directions can be found via the Judiciary website here.