Court of Protection Rules to be reviewed

Sir Mark Potter, President of the Family Division, has set up a committee to review the procedures of the Court of Protection (“CoP”), at the request of the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Jack Straw, with the aim of ensuring it provides “an efficient and effective service”. The CoP, re-vamped in 2007 following the implementation of the Mental Capacity Act 2005, has been much criticised for its cost to users, its procedural delays and its complexities. The CoP has been labelled “little known”, “secret” and its powers “draconian” by The Daily Mail. During the two years of operation in its present form, the CoP and its supervising body the Office of the Public Guardian, collected £23 million in court fees and provoked 2,000 complaints.