Eric Chua on Mental Capacity (Amendment) Bill

In Parliament on Tuesday (Apr 2), a Bill was moved to provide for retroactive validation of Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPAs) which were affected by a missing statement. The electronic LPA form, unlike the hardcopy form, did not contain the required statement “signed (or marked) and delivered as a deed by Donor”. For approximately 87,000 electronic LPAs made between 14 November 2022 and 4 January 2024, this raised uncertainty as to whether they were validly made. The Bill assures affected donors that they will not have to remake their LPAs and removes any future potential complications. Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Social and Family Development Eric Chua told the House that to date, his ministry was not aware of any actual harm suffered by donees or donors. Since 5 January 2024, the electronic LPA had been revised to include the necessary statement. Mr Chua also spoke about the process by which the electronic LPA form had been approved. He said the Ministry of Social and Family Development had an internal proofreading and vetting process. The form was prepared by staff of the Office of the Public Guardian and vetted by the Public Guardian as well as a separate Legal Unit. Apologising for the omission, he said that “unfortunately, no system of process checks can be 100 per cent accurate," as this case shows.