Health and care lasting power of attorney: key features

The Mental Capacity Act 2005 sets out principles and powers aimed at maximising the decision-making ability of patients so that as many people as possible can decide for themselves what treatment and care they receive while allowing nurses to provide care and treatment in the person's best interests where they are incapable of making such decisions (Mental Capacity Act 2005, sections 1 and 4).

A key justification for introducing a law to regulate decision-making for those unable to make choices because of incapacity was to allow people to prepare for future incapacity by choosing people they trust to make those decisions on the their behalf.

In England and Wales, the Mental Capacity Act 2005 provides the opportunity for adults to do this through the use of lasting power of attorney (LPA) (Mental Capacity Act 2005, sections 9–14).

An LPA allows capable adults to nominate one or more people to act on their behalf if they are unable to make decisions themselves at some point in the future.