Mental Capacity Report - March 2024

Welcome to the March 2024 Mental Capacity Report. Highlights this month include:

1. In the Health, Welfare and Deprivation of Liberty Report: sexual and contraceptive complexities and an important light shed on DoLS from Northern Ireland;
2. In the Property and Affairs Report: the obligations on the LPA certificate provider, telling P their damages award, and dispensing with notification in statutory will cases;
3. In the Practice and Procedure Report: when it is necessary to go to court in serious medical treatment cases, and a Scottish cross-border problem;
4. In the (new) Mental Health Matters Report: medical evidence, mental disorder and deprivation of liberty, and the approach to propensity evidence;
5. In the Wider Context Report: when not to try CPR, developments in the context of assisted dying / assisted suicide and with Martha’s Rule, and news from Ireland;
6. In the Scotland Report: a Scottish take on the Cheshire West anniversary and a tribute to Karen Kirk.

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.

Finally, we should note March 2024 contains three ten year anniversaries. One is national – indeed international – significance: the decision in Cheshire West; one is of national significance: the House of Lords Select Committee post-legislative scrutiny report on the MCA 2005; and the third is of personal significance to Alex: the launch of his website.

Click below to download the Screen-friendly version of the Report or the Print-friendly version of the Report.

Watch Alex's walkthrough of the Report.

March 2024 Mental Capacity Report Walkthrough from Ruck Keene on Vimeo.