For those who were eagerly awaiting the Law Commission’s final report and draft bill on Deprivation of Liberty before Christmas (a small stocking filler, perhaps?) I am afraid that you will be disappointed. The Law Commission announced today that the project has been delayed until March 2017.

In a statement, the Law Commission said:

“The reason for the delay is the complexity of the task of drafting legislation on such an important issue. It is vitally important to get the law right here. Badly drafted, over-complicated law is a big part of the problem with the current DoLS, and we do not want to fall into the same trap again…. Read more »

In R (Damien Tinsley (by his litigation friend and property and affairs deputy, Hugh Jones) v Manchester City Council and South Manchester Clinical Commissioning Group [2016] EWHC 2855 (Admin), the Administrative Court considered whether a local authority was entitled to refuse to provide after-care services under section 117 of the Mental Health Act 1983 (“the MHA”) when an applicant was in receipt of a large personal injury award, which included an element for the future cost of care. The Judge (HHJ Stephen Davies, sitting as a High Court Judge) held that it was not. A local authority cannot have regard to the claimant’s ability to fund the cost of after-care services from damages awarded to him in a personal injury claim when determining whether to provide after-care services under section 117 of the MHA.

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Those who attended the 11KBW Local Authority Conference on Tuesday will have heard me speak about the Children and Social Work Bill (“the Bill”). The Bill was introduced in the House of Lords in May of this year, and is currently working its way through that House. Read more »