Mental Capacity Resource Centre

Summary Re B (A Child: Complex Needs: Deprivation of Liberty) [2026] EWHC 2789 (Fam) represents a clear and detailed consideration and application of AGNI to those under 16.  It represents the first in what Henke J (the lead judge for the National DoL list) has said will be a number of decisions relating to children and young people whose cases she heard in that list.  The specific child in question, B, was 9, with diagnoses of Autism Spectrum Disorder and Global Developmental Delay and presented with complex behavioural, emotional and developmental needs.  She had a detailed Behaviour Support Plan and [...]

Summary In ZZ (Deprivation of Liberty in the Public Interest) (No. 2) [2026] EWCOP 57 (T2), two questions arose: (1) was ZZ deprived of his liberty; and (2) in circumstances where the primary reason for the relevant restrictions were to secure the public interest, was any deprivation of liberty to which he was subject justified?  The judgment is the latest in a long-running saga which has been to Tier 3 and back (see Local Authority A v ZZ [2024] EWCOP 21), concerning a man with a constellation of impairments and presenting significant risks to others). As to the first question, [...]

Given that the AGNI case started with a devolution reference from Northern Ireland, it is of interest that – so far – there have been no reported cases from that jurisdiction applying the case.  One reason for this is that the Northern Ireland DoLS framework applies more broadly than the Anglo-Welsh one (so the ‘community DoL’ cases heard by the Court of Protection largely do not arise), and that challenges to authorisations under that framework are heard by the Review Tribunal, which does not publish its judgments.  However, we now have a Northern Ireland High Court decision which considers AGNI, [...]

Summary[1] T was 25 with diagnoses of autism, ADHD, a speech and language disorder and personality disorder. In October 2024 his solicitor wrote to the local authority about his long-standing difficulties with relationships and sexual boundaries, and asked for input from a psychologist and from learning disability and autism specialists. The Care Act needs assessment completed on 13 December 2024 recorded that “T lacks capacity in understanding relationships/sexual relationships and boundaries of relationships,” although this information came from the placement provider; the assessor had not assessed capacity herself (paragraph 19). The legality of the Care Act assessment was challenged principally [...]

Summary[1] In Lumb v NHS Humber & North Yorkshire ICB [2024] EWCOP 57 (T2), HHJ Hilder held that managing direct payments under the National Health Service (Direct Payments) Regulations 2013 did not fall within the ‘general authority’ of a property and affairs deputy, because complying with those Regulations required some decisions of a welfare type to be made.  She held that the Court of Protection could confer authority to manage such payments, but that authority would have to draw on both the welfare and the property and affairs ‘streams’ of its jurisdiction. Those who hoped that Lumb would turn out [...]

Summary HHJ Burrows has handed down the most comprehensive first instance ‘run’ at AGNI to date, AR (Whether restrictions amount to a deprivation of liberty) [2026] EWCOP 45 (T2), concerning (as he identified at paragraph 1): a young man I shall call AR. He is diagnosed as suffering from moderate to severe learning disability and autistic spectrum disorder. He is a man of 25 years who lived for most of his life with his parents. However, since May 2025, AR has lived in a placement, initially by way of respite care, but now on a more permanent footing. Although there [...]

Summary This decision of Master Clark, given in a probate claim with a “long-running and bitterly acrimonious history,” is an important reminder of two things: (1) the limits of the Court of Protection’s jurisdiction over wills that P has already made; and (2) the limited status of findings made by the Court of Protection in subsequent proceedings. Mr Thorpe suffered a stroke in 2017. In 2021, he went to live with his daughter, the claimant, and subsequently granted LPAs for property and affairs and health and welfare in favour of the claimant and her two daughters. He also made a [...]

Summary FHR, aged 28, sustained a catastrophic hypoxic brain injury in January 2020 when he tried to hang himself. He had been in a prolonged disorder of consciousness ever since: cortically blind, mostly paralysed, PEG-fed, with a cuffed tracheostomy requiring deep suctioning every half hour, daily digital rectal evacuation and worsening contractures.  He was cared for at his adapted home by an ICB-commissioned package from August 2020 until April 2025, when – in the third set of Court of Protection proceedings about his residence and care since December 2020 – he was moved on an interim basis to a care [...]

Summary Sixteen months after the application for recognition and enforcement of RF’s Scottish guardianship order foundered in Argyll and Bute Council v RF [2025] EWCOP 12 (T3) (‘RF(1)’), the council returned with a new order and succeeded. Although by the time of the hearing the Official Solicitor supported the application, Theis J considered it important to set out why the second attempt succeeded where the first had failed. RF, aged 65, had a learning disability and a personality disorder. Born and raised in Scotland, where his two siblings still live, he had been at a placement in London since December [...]

Summary CW, aged 33, had emotionally unstable personality disorder, cognitive deficits and epilepsy. In December 2022 Scottish Borders Council placed her in a care home in Hartlepool under a three-year welfare guardianship order made by Jedburgh Sheriff Court. The placement was intended to be temporary whilst alternative placements closer to home were being sought. No application was made to recognise and enforce the order under Schedule 3. When the care home sought a DoLS authorisation in February 2023, Hartlepool initially rejected the request because it had not placed CW but ultimately granted a standard authorisation in March 2023 and a [...]