News In Focus
5 July 2007
Office of Public Guardian fees rise
A new fee structure for the Office of the Public Guardian will come into effect from 16 July.
The amended table, the first increase since 2001, is introduced by SSI 2007/320 and can be viewed at http://www.publicguardian-scotland.gov.uk/whatwedo/feetable.asp .
Save for registration fees, the increase only takes into account inflation during the intervening period. Registration fees however have been increased from £35 to £60 to reflect the increased cost to the office of processing such significant volumes of work.
The OPG also points out that a fee of £60 will apply per submission of a power of attorney, to reflect the work that the Public Guardian has to undertake even in those cases where it ultimately transpires there is a statutory bar to registration. These amount to 20% of the total. If a power of attorney is returned and re-submitted, a further fee of £60 will be payable.
The list of the most common reasons why powers of attorney are rejected can be viewed at http://www.publicguardian-scotland.gov.uk/faqs/index.asp#_POWERS_OF_ATTORNEY . They include failure to enclose the fee payable to the Scottish Court Service, omitting the declaration that the attorney is willing to act, the grantor signing the application instead of the page provided in the registration form, errors in the prescribed certificate, and drafting errors incompatible with the Adults with Incapacity Act.
Any queries concerning the new fee structure should be addressed to Kenneth Graham, Administration/Finance Manager on 01324 678 345 or kgraham2@scotcourts.gov.uk .