Still no date for the roll out of Claudia's law

Peter Lawrence, the father of missing York woman Claudia Lawrence was in Westminster to hear MPs pressure the Ministry of Justice into setting a date for the introduction of his much longed for guardianship law.

Mr Lawrence would like to see changes made to legislation that would allow families of missing people to take control of their financial affairs. Currently banks require a signature before any activity can take place on another person’s account.

Minister Dominic Raab said he was commited to getting it into law, but he was sorry he couldn’t give a timetable of action ‘etched in stone’ during the day’s debate in the House of Commons.

York Outer MP Julian Sturdy, who tabled the discussion, said: “We are six to eight weeks away from the Queen’s speech ans that is an ideal opportunity to hopefully make some progress on an important piece of legislation. It’s simply not good enough a year after promising action as soon as possible to still have nothing to show families who need our help.”

Minister Raab said he understood it was a heartfelt issue causing agony for families and it was wrong to say that no progress was being made.

He outlined that the Ministry of Justice was working on ensuring the proposals work by ensuring families work in the best interest of the missing person, supervising the process through the Office of the Public Guardian and that the guardianship status would apply for four years after which time a family could re-apply.

Mr Lawrence said: “It was too much to expect that we would get a timetable but I am pleased that the minister has expressed his commitment to bring this legislation forward.”

Without guardianship families are left unable to make mortgage payments, which risks repossession, or cancel direct debits.