Mental Capacity Report – March 2026

Welcome to the March 2026 Mental Capacity Report. Highlights this month include:

1. In the Health, Welfare and Deprivation of Liberty Report: Senior Judge Hilder lays down her baton; attorneys and failures to consult, and a research corner on anorexia and last resort options;
2. In the Property and Affairs Report: new OPG guidance, ‘third sector’ deputyship and a reverse indemnity tangle;
3. In the Practice and Procedure Report: notes from a fireside chat with DDJ Flanagan, and litigation capacity in the absence of subject-matter capacity;
4. In the Mental Health Matters Report: conditional discharge and deprivation of liberty – the new regime, and conditional discharge into hospital;
5. In the Children’s Capacity Report: parental responsibility and confinement – the need for an appellate judgment;
6. In the Wider Context Report: assisted dying / assisted suicide update, Strasbourg’s latest word on withdrawing life-sustaining treatment and mental capacity reform in New Zealand.

Circumstances beyond our control mean that we do not have a Scottish report this time.

A reminder that we have updated our unofficial update to the MCA / DoLS Codes of Practice, available here, and that, whilst Chambers have launched a new and zippy version of our website, all the content that you might need – our Reports, our case-law summaries, and our guidance notes – can still be found via here.

You can find our past issues, our case summaries, and more on our dedicated sub-site here, where you can also sign up to the Mental Capacity Report.