Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to assist local authorities to address the consequences of the Supreme Court’s judgments in <i>P v Cheshire West and Chester Council</i> and <i>P and Q v Surrey County Council</i> on deprivation of liberty of mentally incapacitated persons, in the light of the likely costs of compliance with those judgments.

So that we might better understand the consequences of the 19 March 2014 Supreme Court judgment in the case of Cheshire West, we have asked the Health and Social Care Information Centre to perform additional data collections as to the number of Deprivation of Liberty Safeguard (DoLS) applications made and the number authorised. The first data set was published in early October 2014. The next will be published in early November 2014.

In the meantime, to assist local authorities, the Government has commissioned the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services to review and redesign the standard forms that support the DoLS process. This will reduce bureaucracy on local authorities whilst maintaining robust safeguards for the service user.

In addition, the Government has commissioned the Law Society to produce guidance to assist local authority DoLS practitioners (including social workers) to understand what constitutes a deprivation of liberty following the Supreme Court judgment.