Mental Capacity Report: Special Report - Mental Capacity (Amendment) Bill

In this special report, we set out a series of perspectives on the Mental Capacity (Amendment) Bill in advance of the first day of Committee stage on 5 September.

We summarised the bill in our July report. Lord O'Shaughnessy, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Health (Lords) has provided a letter to peers setting out matters following its second reading in Parliament, and numerous peers have tabled amendments, focusing, in particular, on issues around care homes, necessity and proportionality (and its relationship to best interests) and advocacy.

In the balance of this report, we set out perspectives from Neil and Tor, along with those sent to us in response to our request in our 'end of term' email in July. We do not pretend that these cover all possible perspectives, and are aware that many organisations either have or will be preparing briefings (by way of example, the ADASS/LGA position can, for instance, be seen here). We hope, though, that the perspectives gathered here will further help inform debate upon this vitally important Bill.

To view the Special Report, please click here.