Mental Capacity Report - May 2025

Welcome to the May 2025 Mental Capacity Report. It is our 150th issue, and, to mark this, Tor and Alex have recorded a discussion reflecting on how the report (then the newsletter) came to be back in 2010, and on how the law and practice have evolved since then. The first issue of the newsletter they discuss can be found here.

Highlights:

1. In the Health, Welfare and Deprivation of Liberty Report: new and updated guidance notes;
2. In the Practice and Procedure Report: naming clinicians (and other professionals), and cross-border deprivation of liberty;
3. In the Mental Health Matters Report: Section 63 MHA 1983 and diabetes, and the Mental Health Bill progresses to the Commons;
4. In the Children’s Capacity Report: the Court of Appeal explains why local authorities cannot consent to the confinement of children in their care;
5. In the Wider Context Report: the other party’s interest in litigation capacity, how far landlords are supposed to go in hoarding cases, and a new Convention on the rights of older adults on the cards?
6. In the Scotland Report: AWI reform update and cross-border deprivation of liberty – Scottish reflections what is appealable in the AWI context.

As there were no developments meriting specific reporting in the property and affairs field this month, we do not have a Property and Affairs report.

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.