THE father of York chef Claudia Lawrence has slammed the Government over its response to calls for greater support for the families of missing people.

Peter Lawrence, whose Heworth daughter has not been seen since March 2009, met MPs at Westminster to support calls by the charity Missing People for a change in the law to help people trying to deal with a missing person's estate.

He said people were facing injustice when trying to deal with affairs such as mortgage, bank accounts and insurance that the missing person left behind them. “Some families have lost their own homes and jobs trying to pay these unexpected bills,” he said.

The Ministry of Justice said ministers had recently carefully considered proposals by Missing People to create a Presumption of Death Act in England and Wales, which would create a single general procedure by which a certificate of presumed death could be obtained and would replace several specific procedures that currently exist.

“Ministers are grateful to Missing People for its work but, in view of the cost of setting up the new procedure, the relatively small number of cases in which it would be used and the existence of the present procedures, have decided that developing this proposal is not a priority,” said a spokesman.

“In the light of the need to concentrate resources on the delivery of key priorities, Ministers have therefore decided not to take this work forward.However, work on other issues relating to people who disappear is still ongoing. More can and should be done to improve the multi-agency response to missing persons.”

Mr Lawrence said he found this an 'unsatisfactory response' and the MPs he had met had agreed with him.

He said many people had experienced such problems, not the 'small' number suggested by the Ministry, and both Northern Ireland and Scotland already had such legislation. “So why not England and Wales? There's enough to worry about emotionally without the additional burden of no procedures existing."