Court of Protection: Authorised Court Officers

My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice (Jonathan Djanogly) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement. The Government have today published a consultation paper on proposals that some straightforward applications to the Court of Protection should be delegated to authorised court officers. At present, all applications to the court have to be decided by a judge, even when the issue involved is straightforward and non-contentious—such as an undisputed application to become a ““property and affairs deputy””. Judges will continue to take all decisions which relate to health and welfare issues, but some types of application for property and affairs deputyships (which form a large proportion of the court’s work) could be dealt with by authorised court officers. This would free up judicial time to focus on the more difficult and sensitive issues the court has to deal with, and reduce the time it takes to deal with routine matters, thereby improving the service to users. The consultation runs until 20 September 2011. Copies have been placed in the House Libraries, and the paper is also available on the Ministry of Justice website at: www.justice.gov.uk/consultations/decisions-court-protection.htm.