39 Essex Chambers October 2025 Mental Capacity Report and walkthrough

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

1. In the Health, Welfare and Deprivation of Liberty Report: time-specificity of capacity (again), a Welsh primer on key caselaw and urban myths around s.4B MCA 2005;
2. In the Property and Affairs Report: two guest articles from new members of the Court of Protection on attorney elephant traps;
3. In the Practice and Procedure Report: the purpose of transparency and the length of restrictions, and the contempt consequences of being found to have capacity;
4. In the Mental Health Matters Report: progress of the Mental Health Bill and the CRPD and the United Kingdom in a stand-off;
5. In the Children’s Capacity Report: the Law Commission’s Disabled Children’s Social Care report and improving the outcomes of children in complex situations;
6. In the Scotland Report: an update on AWI reform.

The screen-friendly compendium is here, and the print-friendly here.

We do not have a Wider Context Report his month but the progress of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill can be followed on my 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.