Mental Capacity Report - March 2025

Welcome to the March 2025 Mental Capacity Report. Highlights this month include:

(1) In the Health, Welfare and Deprivation of Liberty Report: insight into the proper place of insight, best interests decision-making and good clinical governance, and anorexia and the changing calculus of decision-making;

(2) In the Property and Affairs Report: the Court of Protection’s (international) jurisdiction over children;

(3) In the Practice and Procedure Report: fees changes relating to the Court of Protection and the OPG guidance on disclosing visitors’ reports;

(4) In the Mental Health Matters Report: the Mental Health Bill progresses and the independent investigation into the care and treatment of Valdo Calocane;

(5) In the Children’s Capacity Report: why the report is named as it is, the Court of Appeal confirms that local authorities cannot consent to the confinement of children in care, and guidance for judges writing to children;

(6) In the Wider Context Report: the updated Code of Practice on diagnosing death and restraint in Northern Ireland;

(7) In the Scotland Report: no hard news, but the way ahead for AWI reform becomes clearer, and unhelpful uncertainty about powers of attorney.

The progress of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill can be followed on Alex’s resources page 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.

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