Alex RKThe January 2021 Mental Capacity Report is now out and will be making its way to inboxes soon. Highlights include;
(1) In the Health, Welfare and Deprivation of Liberty Report: vaccination; life-sustaining treatment decisions and the limits of the court processes; capacity and unusual sexual practices; and the lockdown regulations and care in the context of incapacity;
(2) In the Property and Affairs Report: removing attorneys and Child Trust Funds in the context of those with impaired decision-making capacity;
(3) In the Practice and Procedure Report: party status and restricting the provision of information; a rare judgment on transparency, and the police and the Court of Protection;
(4) In the Wider Context Report: DNACPR decision-making under scrutiny, safeguarding and the MCA – SARs under scrutiny; and important decisions relating to different aspects of childhood;
(5) In the Scotland Report: the interim review of the Scott Mental Health Law Review under scrutiny and recent developments from Scottish Government.
The compendium issue is available here, and the screen-friendly version here.
My walkthrough is here:
You can find our past issues, our case summaries, and more on our dedicated sub-site here, where you can also find updated versions of both our capacity and best interests guides. We have taken a deliberate decision not to cover all the host of COVID-19 related matters that might have a tangential impact upon mental capacity in the Report. Chambers has created a dedicated COVID-19 page with resources, seminars, and more, here; I maintain a resources page for MCA and COVID-19 here, and Neil a page here. If you want more information on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which we frequently refer to in this Report, we suggest you go to the Small Places website run by Lucy Series of Cardiff University.
Neil has also done a discussion paper outlining and commenting upon the key elements of the White Paper published on 13 January 2021 proposing reforms to the Mental Health Act 1983, which will be available shortly. My post and shedinar about the mental capacity aspects of the White Paper is here.
