Decision Support Arrangements
Decision support arrangements are regulated arrangements which may be put in place in relation to an adult’s decision-making about their personal welfare, including healthcare decisions, and/or property and financial affairs. The DSS team collates statistics on these arrangements on a monthly basis. These statistics are presented to the Senior Leadership Team of the Mental Health Commission - and the Board of the MHC - on a monthly basis. The statistics are published on the website within 10 working days of the end of each month.
There are three types of support arrangements under the Assisted Decision-Making Capacity Act 2015 for people who currently, or may shortly, face challenges when making certain decisions. Click on the links for information on each decision-support arrangement:
- Decision-making assistance agreement
- Co-decision-making agreement
- Decision-making representation order
There are also two types of arrangements for people who wish to plan ahead for a time in the future when they might lose capacity. Click on the links for information on each of these advance planning arrangements:
Co-decision-making agreements and enduring power of attorney made under the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 are registered with the DSS.
Decision-making representatives are appointed by the courts and once a decision-making representative order is made, a copy is sent to the DSS to be registered.
A decision-making assistance agreement must be notified to the DSS. It is not formally registered in the same way as the other three arrangements, but we include notified decision-making assistance agreements in our registration statistics.
Advance healthcare directives are not registered with the DSS and we, therefore, do not hold any statistics in relation to this advance planning arrangement.
Click on the link Search the Register to find out more about searching the DSS register.
2026: overall statistics
| Month | Number of arrangementsregistered during this month | Total |
| January | 478 | 7,817 |
| February | 429 | 8,246 |
| March | 462 | 8,708 |
| April | 548 | 9,256 |
| May | 528 | 9,784 |
| June | 676 | 10,460 |
| July | 1,246 | 11,706 |
| August | 1,023 | 12,730 |
| September | 875 | 13,605 |
2025: overall statistics
Month | Number of arrangementsregistered during this month | Total |
| January | 243 | 2,615 |
| February | 379 | 2,994 |
| March | 492 | 3,486 |
| April | 291 | 3,777 |
| May | 497 | 4,274 |
| June | 484 | 4,758 |
| July | 525 | 5,283 |
| August | 368 | 5,651 |
| September | 447 | 6,096 |
| October | 425 | 6,521 |
| November | 348 | 6,869 |
| December | 475 | 7,342 |
2024: overall statistics
Month | Number of arrangementsregistered during this month | Total |
| January | 40 | 180 |
| February | 88 | 268 |
| March | 107 | 375 |
| April | 108 | 483 |
| May | 133 | 616 |
| June | 130 | 746 |
| July | 289 | 1035 |
| August | 147 | 1182 |
| September | 272 | 1,454 |
| October | 357 | 1,811 |
| November | 293 | 2,016 |
| December | 264 | 2,372 |
2023: overall statistics
Month | Number of arrangementsregistered during this month | Total |
| April 2023 (from 26.04.2023) | 0 | 0 |
| May 2023 | 0 | 0 |
| June 2023 | 1 | 1 |
| July 2023 | 4 | 5 |
| August 2023 | 19 | 24 |
| September 2023 | 25 | 49 |
| October 2023 | 18 | 67 |
| November 2023 | 40 | 107 |
| December 2023 | 33 | 140 |
2026: individual arrangement statistics
Month | Enduring Powers of Attorney registered with DSS | Decision-Making Assistant Agreement notified for legal affect | Co-Decision-Making Agreement registered with DSS | Decision-Making Representation Orders* registered with DSS** |
| January | 347 | 7 | 14 | 110 |
| February | 321 | 8 | 9 | 91 |
| March | 352 | 4 | 11 | 95 |
| April | 406 | 11 | 13 | 118 |
| May | 386 | 8 | 20 | 114 |
| June | 541 | 5 | 12 | 118 |
| July | 1,069 | 10 | 24 | 143 |
| August | 831 | 11 | 11 | 170 |
| September | 600 | 11 | 16 | 248 |
| Total 2026 | 4,853 | 75 | 130 | 1,207 |
| Overall Total | 9,926 | 270 | 301 | 3,108 |
*Decision-making representatives are appointed by the Court and the arrangements are registered with the DSS
** This figure is inclusive of orders that have been varied by the court. This is where a change has been made to an existing registered order and the varied order has been received and registered by the DSS.
2025: individual arrangement statistics
Month | Enduring Powers of Attorney registered with DSS | Decision-Making Assistant Agreement notified for legal affect | Co-Decision-Making Agreement registered with DSS | Decision-Making Representation Orders* registered with DSS** |
| January | 164 | 12 | 11 | 56 |
| February | 242 | 9 | 4 | 124 |
| March | 346 | 15 | 7 | 124 |
| April | 139 | 21 | 5 | 126 |
| May | 362 | 9 | 10 | 116 |
| June | 377 | 7 | 7 | 93 |
| July | 394 | 9 | 17 | 105 |
| August | 247 | 20 | 8 | 93 |
| September | 337 | 9 | 7 | 94 |
| October | 358 | 14 | 6 | 47 |
| November | 267 | 2 | 10 | 70 |
| December | 389 | 10 | 9 | 65 |
| Total 2025 | 3,622 | 137 | 101 | 1,113 |
| Overall Total | 5,073 | 194 | 171 | 1,901 |
*Decision-making representatives are appointed by the Court and the arrangements are registered with the DSS
** This figure is inclusive of orders that have been varied by the court. This is where a change has been made to an existing registered order and the varied order has been received and registered by the DSS.
2024: individual arrangement statistics
Month | Enduring Powers of Attorney registered with DSS | Decision-Making Assistant Agreement notified for legal affect | Co-Decision-Making Agreement registered with DSS | Decision-Making Representation Orders* registered with DSS |
| January | 26 | 0 | 0 | 14 |
| February | 34 | 9 | 2 | 43 |
| March | 44 | 2 | 3 | 58 |
| April | 49 | 2 | 2 | 55 |
| May | 62 | 0 | 12 | 59 |
| June | 81 | 4 | 5 | 40 |
| July | 198 | 3 | 12 | 76 |
| August | 101 | 12 | 3 | 32 |
| September | 219 | 0 | 2 | 51 |
| October | 244 | 10 | 3 | 102 |
| November | 185 | 2 | 7 | 99 |
| December | 170 | 5 | 9 | 76 |
| Total | 1,413 | 49 | 60 | 705 |
*Decision-making representatives are appointed by the Court and the arrangements are registered with the DSS
2023: individual arrangement statistics
Month | Enduring Powers of Attorney registered with DSS | Decision-Making Assistant Agreement notified for legal affect | Co-Decision-Making Agreement registered with DSS | Decision-Making Representation Orders* registered with DSS |
| April (from 26th onwards) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| May | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| June | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| July | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| August | 3 | 2 | 1 | 13 |
| September | 0 | 1 | 3 | 21 |
| October | 2 | 1 | 1 | 14 |
| November | 20 | 1 | 3 | 16 |
| December | 11 | 3 | 2 | 17 |
| Total | 38 | 9 | 10 | 83 |
*Decision-making representatives are appointed by the Court and the arrangements are registered with the DSS
Total Notified EPAs
A notified EPA means that since the 2015 Act EPA was registered with the DSS the attorney has notified the DSS that the donor has lost capacity in order to bring the EPA into effect.
If an attorney believes a donor lacks capacity to make one or more of the decisions contained in the enduring power of attorney, the attorney must notify the enduring power of attorney to the DSS to bring it into effect. Steps for notifying an enduring power of attorney
As of September 2026, the total number of enduring powers of attorney notified to the DSS stands at 418. Ideally, the notification of an EPA will be long after it was registered, and it is hoped that most EPAs never require to be notified.