Fees to increase and more updates from the Public Guardian March-April 2026

Fees, remuneration rates and submission requirements administered by the Office of the Public Guardian will all rise from 1 April 2026, alongside a proposed shift in how errors in power of attorney applications are handled. 

Fees to increase from 1 April 2026

The fees payable to the Public Guardian will increase on 1 April 2026. The Scottish Statutory Instrument 2026 No. 81 provides all the details of the forthcoming increase.

Key points to note:

• Submitting a power of attorney document for registration will increase to £99
• Registration fees for intervention or guardianship orders will increase to £110
• Registration fees for access to funds (Part 3) also increase to £110

Please see OPGs fees webpage for information about current and forthcoming fees.

Remuneration levels  

Remuneration awarded to financial guardians has been reviewed and will increase on 1 April 2026. Please visit OPG website for more information on the new levels. Professional financial guardians may add VAT to any remuneration awarded including any uplift amount awarded.

OPG Proposal for Handling Errors and Discrepancies in Power of Attorney Submissions — Calls for Feedback

Call for feedback from professionals given the increasing volume of power of attorney (PoA) submissions and the associated administrative burden caused by errors and discrepancies.

OPG proposes to reject and return PoAs with identified errors in the names of the granter or attorney, rather than contacting the sender for clarification. The details of the proposal i.e. the background, rationale, and potential benefits of this change is available from the OPG website. Feedback is invited by Friday 10 April 2026.

Guardianship Orders – sending evidence to OPG by email

Many guardians prefer to send evidence to support an inventory of estate, management plan, or annual account to OPG by email. While this is acceptable, the quality of the emailed attachments is frequently poor which makes reading the supporting information difficult and it often takes additional administrative effort to rectify evidence. Financial guardians should note that from 1 April 2026 evidence sent by email must meet the following requirements:

• Bank statements, receipts, invoices etc. should only be sent in PDF, Word or Excel format. JPEGs/photographs are not acceptable.
• Large files must be compressed in a Zip file. Do not send multiple emails.
• All attachments/files should be named.
• Please limit the number of emails per submission.
• Sharing files and links to webpages is not acceptable.
• Your account form should be in one attachment and any evidence provided in a separate attachment.
• Your documentation should be sent to either OPGorders@scotcourts.gov.uk or if a PGS member, please send to opgprofessionalguascheme@scotcourts.gov.uk  

From 1 April 2026 evidence that fails to meet the above requirements will not be accepted and OPG will set the work item status to pending. OPG will advise guardians if this is the case and ask guardians to either resend the evidence by email in line with requirements or send their documentation by post.

Update provided by OPG