The Law Commission’s workMental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) ‘acts in connection with a person’s care or treatment’:overviewMental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) ‘acts in connection with a person’s care or treatment’:Law Commission, andLaw Commission:Mental Capacity Act 2005, andMental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) ‘acts in connection with a person’s care or treatment’:overviewMental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) ‘acts in connection with a person’s care or treatment’:Law Commission, andLaw Commission:Mental Capacity Act 2005, and(reproduced in full in appendix A)Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) ‘acts in connection with a person’s care or treatment’:overviewMental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) ‘acts in connection with a person’s care or treatment’:Law Commission, andLaw Commission:Mental Capacity Act 2005, and(reproduced in full in appendix A)Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) ‘acts in connection with a person’s care or treatment’:overviewMental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) ‘acts in connection with a person’s care or treatment’:Law Commission, andLaw Commission:Mental Capacity Act 2005, andCodes of Practice:Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DOLS) Code of Practice to supplement the main Mental Capacity Act 2005 Code of Practice (2008)
3.6Much useful work was done by the Law Commission to address these difficult issues. The Commission’s fourth programme published in September 1989 noted the view that existing legal mechanisms were ‘complicated, inflexible and piecemeal’ and stated that the recent House of Lords decision in
Re F1Reported as Re F (mental patient: sterilisation) [1990] 2 AC 1. could not provide a comprehensive solution.
2Fourth Programme of Law Reform (1989) Law Com NO 185, Item 9; Cm 800.3.7Lady Hale (then Brenda Hoggett) was an important driver of the reform programme, and the Law Commission’s Report of 1995
3Mental incapacity (report) [1995] EWLC 231, 15 January 1995. The report can be downloaded from the BAILII website: www.bailii.org/ew/other/EWLC/1995/231_s.html. which had a draft Bill appended to it was preceded by a number of consultation and discussion papers.
3.8The Law Commission’s proposals were debated and in some respects modified over the following years, eventually emerging as the MCA 2005.
3.9Subsequently, a number of important insertions to the Act were made by the MHA 2007. In particular, a new scheme for authorising deprivation of liberty under the MCA 2005 was introduced.