The Mental Capacity (Amendment) Bill was approved by Parliament on 24 April 2019, meaning it will become law shortly, when it receives Royal Assent.
The legislation provides for the repeal of the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) contained in the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA), and their replacement with a new scheme called the Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS).
The LPS establishes a process for authorising arrangements enabling care or treatment which give rise to a deprivation of liberty within the meaning of Article 5(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), where the person lacks capacity to consent to the arrangements. It also provides for safeguards to be delivered to people subject to the scheme.
The government is currently working on the LPS code of practice, which it has committed to publish for public consultation later this year. A number of regulations will also need to be drafted before the legislation can be implemented.
The government has not yet announced the date on which the legislation will come into force. But it is possible that this could take place in Spring 2020. The government has confirmed that for up to a year the DoLS system will run alongside the LPS to enable those subject to DoLS to be transferred to LPS in a managed way
NWSB Mental Capacity Amendments Blog
This post is also available in: Welsh
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