New law introduced to protect vulnerable people in care
The new law seeks to protect the rights of people who do not have the mental capacity to make decisions about their care and to reduce the burden on local authorities.
The Mental Capacity (Amendment) Bill was introduced to the House of Lords on Tuesday 3 July and seeks to replace the current system known as ‘Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards’ (DoLs).
DoLs is an assessment currently carried out on people who do not have the mental capacity to make their own decisions about their care, for example because they are living with dementia. It was criticised by a 2017 Law Commission review for being too complex and bureaucratic.
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