The House of Lords Committee appointed to consider and report on the Mental Capacity Act 2005 has now published its report.
Prof Glynis Murphy, Co-Director and Professor of Clinical Psychology and Disability at the Tizard Centre commented, “The Tizard Centre welcomes the House of Lords MCA 2005 Post-legislative Scrutiny Report. We agree that the MCA 2005 is largely well-drafted and is helpful in defining capacity and providing a procedure for those without capacity to have good decisions made. We agree that implementation of the MCA has been patchy, with some services engaged in very good implementation but some services showing poor understanding.
We also welcome the recommendation that the DOLS should be completely re-drafted. They are over-complex and unwieldy. The DOLS wording resembles that of the MHA2007 rather than the MCA 2005, and this is regrettable. Nevertheless our evidence is that it has sometimes been used in admirable ways, for people whose behaviour is risky, to help them stay safely in the community when in other circumstances they would have been hospitalised.”
To view the full text:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201314/ldselect/ldmentalcap/139/139.pdf
An easy read version is also available:
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/lords-committees/mental-capacity-act/mental-capacity-act-2005-easyread.pdf