Public Guardianship Office (Hansard, 5 February 2002)

§ Mr. George Howarth
To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what functions the Public Guardianship Office performs; and what her estimate is of its running costs. [32055]

§ Ms Rosie Winterton
The PGO provides an integrated service for its clients, safeguarding their financial interests while avoiding state intervention. In protecting their financial interests, the PGO works with others to meet the clients' broader social needs. The functions of the PGO are to protect and promote the interests of its clients by overseeing and supporting the activities of receivers 905W appointed by the Court of Protection to manage their financial affairs; to manage the financial affairs of people whom the Court of Protection adjudges mentally incapable of doing so for themselves, where there is no one else willing or suitable to act as receiver, and to carry out the administrative functions arising from the Court of Protection's jurisdiction under the Enduring Power of Attorney Act 1985.
The current estimated running costs of the PGO are £21,790,000.

§ Mr. George Howarth
To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what targets she has set for reply to(a) letters from hon. Members and (b) letters from members of the public to the Public Guardianship Office. [32684]

§ Ms Rosie Winterton
The Public Guardianship Office has a key performance measure which applies to letters from hon. Members as well as letters in general from the public. It currently required 85 per cent. of letters to be responded to within 15 days of receipt. In the period 1 April to 30 November 2001 this target was exceeded and 91.9 per cent. of letters received a response before the target date.
However, it is very unfortunate that the Public Guardianship Office mislaid my hon. Friend's letter dated 26 November and as a result a response was sent well outside of this target. The PGO has apologised for this unacceptable delay.

§ Mr. George Howarth
To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many properties the Public Guardianship Office controls on behalf of people for whom they take responsibility. [32685]

§ Ms Rosie Winterton
The Public Guardianship Office (PGO) acts as receiver for clients where there is no other suitable person available to act or where for other reasons the court of protection considers it appropriate that there should be an independent receiver. The PGO acts as receiver to 110 clients who own property. Monitoring, guidance and advisory activities are carried out by the protection division of the PGO to ensure that there is adequate supervision of private receivers by means of issuing authorities and directions. 2,863 protection division clients own property.

§ Mr. George Howarth
To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many people are under the protection of the Public Guardianship Office. [32400]

§ Ms Rosie Winterton
There are approximately 1,000 clients under the direct receivership of the PGO and a further 20,000 clients within the protection division of the PGO. In addition the PGO performs a registration service for enduring powers of attorney (EPA): approximately 12,000 EPAs are registered annually.

§ Mr. George Howarth
To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what official foreign visits officials from the Public Guardianship Office have been made since it was established; at what cost; and for what purpose. [32401]
906W

§ Ms Rosie Winterton
Nicholas Smedley, then Acting Chief Executive of the PGO, accompanied Denzil Lush, Master of the Court Protection, to the Biennial Conference of the Canadian Public Trustees and Guardians, which was held in Nova Scotia, Canada on 27–31 May 2001. The purpose of the visit was to build on existing relations, gather information, keep abreast of international legislation and enable the PGO to promote its radical programme of change. Both Mr. Smedley and Master Lush presented papers to the conference. The total cost of the visit was £4,008.56.
In September 2001, Julie Burlinson, (MERIS Project Manager) Chris Barnwell (Court Manager) and Neil Ross (Account Manager) visited Reykjavik, Iceland. The purpose of this visit was to conduct an evaluation of one of the short-listed suppliers for MERIS. MERIS (Mental Health Renaissance Information System) is the project which will provide an IS system to support the core functions of the PGO. The total cost of this visit was £2,095.50.