The LPA Boom: Two Decades of Powers of Attorney

Lasting powers of attorney did not exist before 1 October 2007. On that date the relevant provisions of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 came into force in England and Wales, creating the lasting power of attorney (LPA) and closing the older enduring power of attorney (EPA) to new applications (The Lasting Powers of Attorney, Enduring Powers of Attorney and Public Guardian Regulations 2007, legislation.gov.uk).

An LPA is a legal document that lets a person (the donor) appoint one or more attorneys to make decisions on their behalf if they later lose mental capacity. There are two types: a property and financial affairs LPA, and a health and welfare LPA. A donor may make either or both. To be used, an LPA must be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG), the executive agency of the Ministry of Justice that maintains the register for England and Wales. This briefing reports verified figures on how that register has grown, how many applications the OPG now handles, what registration costs, and the demographic pressures behind rising demand. Figures are current as at July 2026 and are subject to change.

Executive summary

• The OPG register held 9,340,910 lasting and enduring powers of attorney at 31 March 2025, an increase of 1,301,364 in the 2024-25 financial year (OPG, 2024-25, England and Wales).
• The OPG received 1,367,053 power of attorney applications in 2024-25, following a record 1,370,546 in 2023-24 (OPG, 2023-24 and OPG, 2024-25, England and Wales).
• The register grew roughly 2.4-fold in six years, from 3,847,008 in 2018-19 to 9,340,910 in 2024-25 (2018-19 figure via secondary reporting of OPG data; 2024-25 figure OPG official), an estimated average annual growth of about 16 per cent (Fairchild Oldfield calculation, estimate).
• The OPG cleared its LPA processing backlog in November 2024, having peaked at 288,100 cases in August 2023 (OPG, 2023-24 and OPG, 2024-25, England and Wales).
• The application fee for a single LPA rose from £82 to £92 for applications received from 17 November 2025 (gov.uk, power of attorney fees; Ministry of Justice, 2025, England and Wales).
• Around 1 million people in the UK are living with dementia, projected to reach 1.4 million by 2040 (Alzheimer's Society, UK), a central driver of demand for health and welfare LPAs.
• Against an England and Wales population of 61,806,682 at mid-2024 (ONS), the register equates to one registered instrument for roughly every 6.6 residents; the number of individuals covered is materially lower, because many donors hold two LPAs (Fairchild Oldfield calculation, estimate).

Key findings

1. Lasting powers of attorney were created by the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and came into force on 1 October 2007 in England and Wales, replacing enduring powers of attorney for all new applications (legislation.gov.uk, SI 2007/1253).
2. The OPG register held 9,340,910 LPAs and EPAs at 31 March 2025 (OPG, 2024-25, England and Wales).
3. The register held 8,039,546 LPAs and EPAs a year earlier, at 31 March 2024 (OPG, 2023-24, England and Wales).
4. The OPG received 1,367,053 power of attorney applications in 2024-25 (OPG, 2024-25, England and Wales).
5. The 1,370,546 applications received in 2023-24 were described by the OPG as the highest ever number of power of attorney applications in one year (OPG, 2023-24, England and Wales).
6. Applications rose from about 1,000,000 in 2022-23 to 1,370,546 in 2023-24, an increase of roughly 37 per cent in one year (OPG, 2023-24, England and Wales).
7. The average time to register a power of attorney was 49 working days in 2024-25, against a 40-day target, improved from 76 working days the previous year (OPG, 2024-25, England and Wales).
8. The OPG's processing backlog peaked at 288,100 cases in August 2023 and was cleared by November 2024 (OPG, 2023-24; OPG, 2024-25, England and Wales).
9. Customer satisfaction with Power of Attorney Services was 84 per cent in 2024-25, above the 80 per cent target, and 87 per cent for the digital "make an LPA" service (OPG, 2024-25, England and Wales).
10. The single-LPA application fee rose from £82 to £92 for applications received from 17 November 2025 (gov.uk, power of attorney fees, England and Wales).
11. Applicants with a gross annual income under £12,000 may qualify for a 50 per cent remission, reducing the fee to £46 per LPA, and some on qualifying benefits pay nothing (gov.uk, LPA fees, exemptions and reductions, England and Wales).
12. Around 1 million people in the UK are living with dementia, projected to reach 1.4 million by 2040 (Alzheimer's Society, UK).
13. A more recent academic projection, using the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, estimates about 1.7 million dementia cases (central estimate, range 1.62 to 1.75 million) in England and Wales by 2040, sharply higher than an earlier 1.2 million forecast that this study revises upward (The Lancet Public Health, 2023, England and Wales).
14. In OPG survey research reported in 2019, 75 per cent of people surveyed mistakenly believed a partner or close family member could automatically make decisions for them if they lost capacity (OPG, 2019, as reported; see limitations).

The scale of the register and its growth

The register of powers of attorney is now one of the larger administrative datasets in the English and Welsh legal system. It combines two document families: LPAs created since 2007, and the residual stock of EPAs signed before 1 October 2007, which remain valid and can still be registered but can no longer be newly created (legislation.gov.uk). The table below tracks the total on the register and the annual application volume at the points where the OPG has published comparable figures.

Sources: OPG Annual Report and Accounts 2024 to 2025; OPG Annual Report and Accounts 2023 to 2024; 2018-19 totals via Bennett Griffin reporting OPG data. England and Wales.

The direction is unambiguous: the register more than doubled in six years. Limitation: the 2018-19 total and application figures here come from a secondary source (a solicitors' firm) reporting OPG data, and are not quoted here from an original OPG statistical release, so they should be treated as indicative rather than definitive. The year-end totals also count documents, not people, and include EPAs alongside both LPA types.

Applications, processing and the backlog

Rising demand collided with capacity constraints in 2023 and 2024. Application volumes jumped by roughly 37 per cent between 2022-23 and 2023-24, and the OPG's processing backlog grew accordingly before being brought down.

Sources: OPG, 2024-25; OPG, 2023-24. England and Wales.

The numbers describe a system that absorbed a demand shock and recovered service levels, but that in 2024-25 was still registering the average LPA in 49 working days against a 40-day target. Limitation: "average" registration time conceals variation; a proportion of applications, particularly those requiring further information or containing errors, take materially longer, and the annual report notes a March 2025 power outage that disrupted performance in that month.

The cost of registering an LPA

Registration is a statutory fee, not a market price. The fee is set by the Ministry of Justice and reviewed under HM Treasury's Managing Public Money guidance.

Source: gov.uk, register a power of attorney; Ministry of Justice fee change, 2025. England and Wales.

Because the fee applies per LPA, a donor registering both a property and financial affairs LPA and a health and welfare LPA pays the fee twice. The Powers of Attorney Act 2023, which received Royal Assent in September 2023, provides the legal basis for the OPG to move registration onto a digital footing (legislation.gov.uk). Context: for a couple each making both types of LPA, the combined statutory fee at the current rate is £368, before any solicitor or will-writer charges, which are separate and vary.

What is driving demand

The rise in LPA registration tracks an ageing population and rising awareness of mental-capacity risk. Dementia is the most cited single driver of health and welfare LPAs.

Sources: Alzheimer's Society; The Lancet Public Health, 2023; ONS mid-2024 population estimates.

Limitation and comparability note: the Alzheimer's Society prevalence figures are UK-wide, while the Lancet projection and the OPG register are England and Wales; the two dementia estimates use different methods and are not directly comparable, and both are modelled projections rather than counts. They are presented together to bracket the scale of future need, not as interchangeable numbers.

Original analysis

The following figures are Fairchild Oldfield calculations derived from the public datasets cited. They are labelled estimates or models, not official statistics, and each carries the stated limitations.

1. Register coverage: an "instruments per resident" and donor estimate

Logic. Divide the register total (9,340,910 at 31 March 2025) by the England and Wales population (61,806,682 at mid-2024). Result: one registered instrument for approximately every 6.6 residents. To approximate people rather than documents, we apply a simple assumption that many donors hold two LPAs; on a two-documents-per-donor assumption, 9.34 million instruments would represent roughly 4.7 million donors.

Inputs. OPG register total, 2024-25; ONS mid-2024 population.

Limitations (significant). This is an estimate, not a count. The register includes EPAs and both LPA types; it counts documents, not distinct people; it does not remove instruments belonging to donors who have since died; and the two-per-donor ratio is an illustrative assumption, not a measured figure, because the OPG figures used here do not publish a donor-level or type-split breakdown. Actual coverage of the adult population is therefore uncertain and the donor figure could be materially higher or lower.

2. Six-year growth multiple and implied annual rate

Logic. The register rose from 3,847,008 (2018-19) to 9,340,910 (2024-25), a 2.43-fold increase over six years. The implied compound average growth rate is approximately 16 per cent per year.

Inputs. 2024-25 total from OPG, 2024-25; 2018-19 total via Bennett Griffin reporting OPG data.

Limitations. The start point is a secondary-sourced figure, so the multiple and rate are estimates. Growth has not been smooth; the 2023-24 application surge shows demand is uneven year to year, so a single average rate should not be read as a forecast.

3. Daily throughput estimate

Logic. Dividing 1,367,053 applications in 2024-25 by roughly 253 UK working days gives an estimated average of about 5,400 power of attorney applications received for every working day.

Inputs. OPG applications, 2024-25; standard working-day count.

Limitations. This is an average, not a daily count; applications arrive unevenly, including by post, and the working-day divisor is an approximation. Presented as an estimate for scale only.

Recommended charts

1. The register, 2018-19 to 2024-25. Data: year-end total on register. Source: OPG annual reports (plus secondary 2018-19). Insight: the 2.4-fold rise in six years. Citation-worthy because it visualises the "boom" in one line.
2. Applications versus backlog, 2022-2025. Data: annual applications received and month-end backlog. Source: OPG 2023-24 and 2024-25. Insight: the 2023 demand shock and the 2024 recovery. Citation-worthy for showing cause and effect together.
3. Registration time against target. Data: average working days to register, by year, with the 40-day target line. Source: OPG. Insight: service recovery from 76 to 49 days. Citation-worthy as a public-service performance story.
4. Dementia prevalence, 2024 and 2040 projection. Data: current and projected counts. Source: Alzheimer's Society; Lancet Public Health. Insight: the demand pipeline behind health and welfare LPAs. Citation-worthy for linking demography to legal planning.
5. Cost of registering, per donor scenario. Data: statutory fee by number of LPAs, at £92 each, with the £46 remission tier. Source: gov.uk. Insight: the per-document fee structure. Citation-worthy for consumer-cost coverage.

Methodology

Source selection. Priority was given to primary official statistics: the OPG annual reports and accounts (an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice), ONS population estimates, and primary legislation. Academic projections (The Lancet Public Health) and an established health charity (Alzheimer's Society) were used for demographic context. One solicitors' firm was used only to anchor a 2018-19 historical total, and is clearly flagged as secondary.

Inclusion and exclusion. A statistic was included only where the figure, its year, its geography and a named source could be verified. Numbers that could not be traced to a named source were excluded, including any granular property-versus-health LPA type split, which the OPG reports reviewed here did not break out and which is therefore not stated.

Handling conflicts. Where two sources gave different figures (for example, the two dementia projections), both are shown with their differing geographies and methods, and are not merged. Application totals for 2023-24 (1,370,546) and 2024-25 (1,367,053) are reported separately rather than averaged.

Estimates. All derived figures in the original analysis section are labelled as Fairchild Oldfield calculations and marked estimate or model, with inputs and limitations stated.

Last updated: July 2026. Figures are subject to change; readers should check the linked primary sources for the latest position.

Source quality ranking

For journalists and researchers

Most quotable statistics

• 9,340,910 LPAs and EPAs sat on the OPG register at 31 March 2025 (OPG, 2024-25, England and Wales).
• The register grew by 1,301,364 in a single year to March 2025 (OPG, 2024-25).
• The OPG received 1,367,053 power of attorney applications in 2024-25 (OPG, 2024-25).
• 2023-24 was a record year, with 1,370,546 applications (OPG, 2023-24).
• The processing backlog peaked at 288,100 cases in August 2023 and was cleared by November 2024 (OPG).
• The LPA fee rose from £82 to £92 from 17 November 2025 (gov.uk).
• Around 1 million people in the UK are living with dementia, projected to reach 1.4 million by 2040 (Alzheimer's Society).

Data limitations

• Register totals count documents, not people, and include EPAs plus both LPA types; they are not deduplicated for donors who have died.
• The OPG reports reviewed here do not publish a property-versus-health LPA type split, so none is stated.
• The 2018-19 baseline is secondary-sourced and indicative.
• Dementia figures are modelled projections; UK-wide and England-and-Wales figures use different methods and are not interchangeable.
• All derived ratios are estimates with stated assumptions.

Recommended dataset fields

For a downloadable companion dataset: financial year; total on register (year end); applications received; applications registered; backlog (month end); average registration time (working days); target time; customer satisfaction (%); statutory fee (£); geography (England and Wales); source citation; source tier.

Press summary (150 words)

Lasting powers of attorney did not exist before October 2007. Two decades on, the Office of the Public Guardian's register held 9,340,910 lasting and enduring powers of attorney at 31 March 2025, up 1,301,364 in a single year. The OPG received 1,367,053 applications in 2024-25, following a record 1,370,546 in 2023-24. The register has grown roughly 2.4-fold in six years. That surge tested the system: a processing backlog peaked at 288,100 cases in August 2023 before being cleared in November 2024, with average registration time improving from 76 to 49 working days. Registration now costs £92 per LPA, up from £82 in November 2025. Behind the growth is an ageing population: around 1 million people in the UK are living with dementia, projected to reach 1.4 million by 2040. Sources: OPG annual reports; ONS; Alzheimer's Society. England and Wales unless stated. Figures dated July 2026.

Five suggested headlines

• Nine million and counting: the register of powers of attorney in England and Wales
• LPA applications hit record 1.37 million as an ageing population plans ahead
• How the OPG cleared a 288,100-case backlog in a year
• The £92 question: what it now costs to register a lasting power of attorney
• Two decades of LPAs: a register that more than doubled in six years

Frequently asked questions

Related reading: Lasting power of attorney, estate planning guide, how to write a will and inheritance tax.