Lasting power of attorney: how to set one up in England and Wales
How to make and register a lasting power of attorney in England and Wales: the two types, the LP1F and LP1H forms, the signing order and how long it takes.
What is a lasting power of attorney?
A lasting power of attorney (LPA) is a legal document that lets you, as the "donor", appoint one or more people, your "attorneys", to make decisions for you or help you make them if an accident or illness leaves you unable to decide for yourself. GOV.UK's guide to making, registering or ending a lasting power of attorney describes two types, each with its own form, and you can make one or both.
Property and financial affairs LPA (form LP1F): this covers money and property, such as running bank and building society accounts, paying bills, collecting benefits or a pension and selling your home. It can be used as soon as it is registered, with your permission, although the form lets you choose that it only applies once you lack capacity.
Health and welfare LPA (form LP1H): this covers your daily routine, medical care, moving into a care home and life-sustaining treatment, and it can only be used when you are unable to make the decision yourself. Attorneys can only decide about life-sustaining treatment if the LPA expressly gives them that power, which is why the form asks whether that decision rests with your attorneys or your doctors, and our guide to living wills and advance decisions explains how an advance decision fits alongside it.
An LPA is legally binding only in England and Wales, so a financial LPA can only be used for your property and assets there.
Who can make an LPA and who can be your attorney?
You can make an LPA if you are 18 or over and have the mental capacity to make it, and you do not need to live in the UK or be a British citizen. The age and capacity requirements come from section 9 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005, whilst section 2 makes clear that a lack of capacity cannot be assumed merely from a person's age or a condition they have.
Your attorneys must also be 18 or over with mental capacity, and they can be relatives, friends, your spouse or partner, or a professional such as a solicitor, although someone who is bankrupt or subject to a debt relief order cannot act on a financial LPA. It is sensible to talk to them before naming them, because an attorney can later object to their own appointment.
If you appoint more than one attorney, you choose how they make decisions, using the terms GOV.UK uses:
Jointly and severally: they can decide on their own or together, and the LPA keeps working if one of them can no longer act. The OPG's LP12 guide says most people choose this.
Jointly: they must all agree on every decision, and the LPA stops working if one can no longer act unless you have named replacement attorneys.
Jointly for some decisions, jointly and severally for others: you list on a continuation sheet the decisions they must take together, such as selling your house.
If the form does not say which applies, section 10 of the Act treats your attorneys as appointed jointly. Replacement attorneys step in permanently if an original attorney dies, loses capacity, steps down or (on a financial LPA) becomes bankrupt, but they cannot stand in whilst an attorney is simply away.
Who can be a certificate provider or witness?
The certificate provider signs to confirm that you understand the LPA and are not being pressured or defrauded into making it, and they must be 18 or over and either someone who has known you well for at least two years or someone with relevant professional skills, such as a GP, a solicitor or a registered social worker, who may charge for doing it.
Many of the people closest to you are ruled out, because a certificate provider cannot be one of your attorneys or replacement attorneys, a member of your family or your attorneys' families (including in-laws and step-relatives), an unmarried partner of yours or of an attorney, a business partner or employee, or the owner, manager or an employee of a care home where you live.
Witnesses must be 18 or over. Your attorneys cannot witness your signature and you cannot witness theirs, although attorneys can witness each other and the certificate provider can act as a witness.
How do you fill in and register the lasting power of attorney form?
You can make an LPA online or on paper, and either way it ends up as a signed paper document posted to the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG). The online Make a lasting power of attorney service takes you through each question and saves your progress before producing forms to print, whilst the paper route uses the LP1F and LP1H packs on GOV.UK's lasting power of attorney forms page, alongside the LP12 guide. GOV.UK says it is usually quicker to make the LPA and pay online, and a relative, friend or solicitor can fill in the forms for you, provided every choice in them is yours.
Everyone must sign the same original document, not copies, and digital signatures are not accepted. The OPG will not register an LPA signed out of order, and the order is:
You sign first, including the life-sustaining treatment section of a health and welfare LPA and any continuation sheets, and your witness signs straight after you.
The certificate provider signs their section.
Each attorney and replacement attorney signs in front of a witness, ideally on the same day as the certificate provider.
If you named any "people to notify" (up to five), whoever is registering sends each of them form LP3, and they then have 3 weeks to raise concerns with the OPG. The online service fills in the LP3 forms for you.
The person applying, either you or an attorney, signs the registration section and posts the original to the OPG at PO Box 16185, Birmingham, B2 2WH, with the fee.
If an attorney applies, you are told and can object. Registration costs £92 for each LPA, with reductions for people on low incomes or certain benefits, which our guide to how much a lasting power of attorney costs sets out. Correction fluid or stickers will stop the OPG registering the form, so any mistake is crossed through, corrected and initialled by whoever made it.
Has the Powers of Attorney Act 2023 changed the process?
Not yet. The Powers of Attorney Act 2023 received Royal Assent on 18 September 2023, and the government said at the time that it would bring the paper-based process online and allow checks on the identity of people applying, and the Act's schedule also changes how notification and objections work. Those provisions only take effect when the Lord Chancellor makes commencement regulations, however, and section 1 of the Act on legislation.gov.uk was still marked as prospective, meaning not yet in force, on 9 November 2026, with no commencement regulations listed.
The OPG's annual report for 2025 to 2026, published in July 2026, says it is still working with the Ministry of Justice on the design of the modernised service and the legislative changes needed to begin live testing. GOV.UK's guidance in November 2026 therefore describes only the current process, in which the forms are completed online or on paper and then printed, signed in ink and posted, and it mentions no identity checks or second service.
How long does registration take, and how is the LPA used afterwards?
The OPG's service status page said on 2 November 2026 that it takes 8 to 10 weeks to process and register an LPA, including a statutory waiting period of 4 weeks that gives people the chance to object, and GOV.UK adds that this assumes there are no mistakes in the application. Your attorneys cannot use the LPA until it is registered.
The LP12 guide recommends applying to register as soon as the form is signed rather than keeping it in a drawer, because the OPG can then pick up errors whilst you still have the capacity to put them right, whereas a mistake found after you have lost capacity cannot be put right, so the OPG may be unable to register it and your family may have to go to the Court of Protection instead.
Once it is registered, the OPG stamps the original and posts it back. For LPAs registered on or after 1 January 2016, you and your attorneys can also use the Use a lasting power of attorney service to create an access code, valid for 50 days, which lets an organisation such as a bank view a summary of the LPA online.
Do you need a solicitor to make an LPA?
Usually not, because the OPG's LP12 guide says you don't need a lawyer unless you have unusual or specific requirements. The online service explains each question as you go, and the OPG's helpline on 0300 456 0300 can help if you want to use the service but need assistance or have no computer or printer.
Advice tends to be worth paying for when the LPA has to do something out of the ordinary, and the LP12 guide suggests it if you live or own property outside England and Wales, are bankrupt, are unsure how your attorneys should make decisions together, have investments under discretionary management or want detailed instructions, because badly worded instructions can make an LPA unworkable. A solicitor regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority can draft or check the forms, and the cost guide linked above covers what that typically adds.
What happens if you never make one?
If you lose capacity without a usable LPA, someone you know would have to apply to the Court of Protection for the power to act for you, which the LP12 guide warns can be expensive and will usually take a long time. A deputy appointed by the court is supervised by the OPG and has to report to it every year, and the cost guide sets out the deputyship fees alongside the LPA fee.
An LPA also stops when you die, at which point your executors take over from your attorneys. Our guide to whether power of attorney ends at death covers what attorneys must then stop doing, and our guide to what an executor does explains the role that replaces it, which helps if you are thinking of choosing the same people for both.
How does power of attorney work in Scotland and Northern Ireland?
Both have their own systems, and the LP12 guide warns that an LPA made in England and Wales may not work there. In Scotland, mygov.scot describes a continuing power of attorney for financial and property affairs, which can be used once registered, and a welfare power of attorney, which can only be used once you have lost capacity. The document must be certified by a solicitor or medical practitioner who interviews you first, then registered with the Office of the Public Guardian (Scotland) before it can take effect.
Northern Ireland still uses the enduring power of attorney, which nidirect says covers financial matters only and must be registered with the High Court's Office of Care and Protection once your attorney believes you are becoming unable to manage your affairs. Lasting powers of attorney are provided for in the Mental Capacity Act (Northern Ireland) 2016, but legislation.gov.uk still shows those provisions as not in force.
What to do next
Decide whether you want one type of LPA or both, and who you would trust as attorneys and replacements.
Talk to the people you want to name, including a certificate provider who meets the rules.
Start the forms through the GOV.UK online service, or download the paper pack, with the LP12 guide beside you.
Arrange the signing in the right order, ideally on a single day, so the original does not have to travel back and forth.
Send any LP3 notices, apply to register straight away and keep the registered original where your attorneys can find it.
When you die, your attorneys' authority ends and your executors have to find and tell every bank, utility, insurer and subscription, which is far quicker when you have left a clear record of what you held, as our guide to sorting your affairs describes. If that work does fall to your family, Legacy Trail's free notification service can contact the private-sector companies for them.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. The Office of the Public Guardian says you do not need a lawyer to make an LPA unless your requirements are unusual, and the GOV.UK online service explains each question before producing forms to print and sign. Paying for advice is more likely to be worthwhile if you live or own property outside England and Wales or have complicated instructions in mind.
The Office of the Public Guardian said in November 2026 that registration takes 8 to 10 weeks if there are no mistakes, and that figure includes a 4-week statutory waiting period. Collecting signatures from your witness, certificate provider and attorneys comes before that, so it helps to allow extra time on top.
Someone aged 18 or over who has known you well for at least two years, or a professional such as your GP, a solicitor or a registered social worker. Your relatives, your attorneys and their relatives, unmarried partners, business partners and staff at a care home where you live cannot do it.
Not as at November 2026. You can complete the forms and pay online, but the finished LPA must be printed, signed in ink by everyone involved and posted to the Office of the Public Guardian. The Powers of Attorney Act 2023 allows for a more digital process, but the parts that would change registration have not yet been brought into force.
Only if you want someone to be able to act in both areas. A financial LPA cannot be used for care or medical decisions and a health and welfare LPA cannot be used for money, and each one is a separate document with its own registration fee.
This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Individual circumstances vary. If you are dealing with an estate, consider taking advice from a solicitor who specialises in probate. For other guidance specific to your circumstances, speak to a funeral director, Citizens Advice, or a regulated financial adviser.