Committee repeats calls for Mental Capacity Bill to be amended

A parliamentary committee has repeated calls for the government
to amend the Mental Capacity Bill to prevent the unlawful detention
of people who lack the capacity to resist, writes
Mithran Samuel.

In its second report on the bill, the joint committee on human
rights said the bill remained incompatible with the European
Convention on Human Rights because it did not include safeguards
against “compliant incapacitated” people being detained
in hospital.

Earlier this month, the government said it would shortly consult
on the European Court of Human Rights’ ruling that an
autistic man, HL, was detained unlawfully at Bournewood Hospital,
Surrey, for five months because he could not discharge himself.

However, ministers have not answered the committee’s call,
first made last November, to respond to the Bournewood judgement
through the Mental Capacity Bill.

Report from http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/jt/jtrights.htm

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