In simplest terms, the answer is yes. A Power of Attorney (PoA) drafted and executed in Scotland can be used in England and Wales. The same works the other way around as well: An English and Welsh LPA can be used North of the border. But they are not without their issues.
I have only recently had to draft my first and only Scottish PoA – literally in the last week before writing this post – and I doubt I shall ever need to again. Being that I live and operate on the South Coast, I am more or less as far away from Scotland as you can possibly be in the UK. I am unlikely to have any Scottish clients as a result of this rather significant distance.
I have had to draft one for a friend of mine. He sadly has stage 4 cancer throughout his whole body: bones, lungs, lymph nodes, stomach, liver. It’s everywhere and he doesn’t have very long left at all. We have been friends for over 20 years and I am very upset to see him this way. He has chosen to spend his final days in Scotland with his step brother, who works as a cancer care nurse.
He had asked me to draft his PoA to appoint his step brother to deal with his affairs and I have done this for him. If you want to know more about the process of applying in Scotland and the differences between the PoA up there and the LPAs down here then Click This Link. But for the remainder of this post I shall discuss the issues referred to above.
While they remain valid either side of the border, they may not necessarily be accepted by the institution that the attorney is trying to deal with at the time. Typically in this scenario we are talking about financial institutions such as banks. There is also no legal mechanism that the attorney can rely on to force these institutions to deal with them. So using them can prove difficult.
To mitigate this issue, the Scottish Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) has released a certificate that can be downloaded from their website that provides the attorney with proof of authority for an English and Welsh LPA. This certificate makes it easier for an attorney appointed under an English and Welsh LPA to exercise their powers in Scotland. They simply need to present this certificate when they present the PoA document and the bank should accept their authority.
Unfortunately, at the time of writing this, the OPG in England has not released an equivalent certificate that makes it easier for an attorney appointed under a Scottish PoA to exercise their powers in England and Wales.
So to answer the question, yes you can use a Sottish PoA in England. But your ability to use it effectively is limited by the willingness of the institution in question to accept its validity.