The Department of Health and Social Care will launch a consultation on the Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS) in the first half of next year, to gather views from families, carers and social care practitioners. This will be a joint consultation with the Ministry of Justice.
The Liberty Protection Safeguards operate when a person lacks mental capacity to make decisions about their care alone. They will replace the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards system, which many consider bureaucratic and onerous.
A backlog of deprivation of liberty referrals has grown since a 2014 Supreme Court ruling, known as Cheshire West, extended the meaning of 'deprived of liberty'. When authorities implement the LPS, the new system aims to streamline processes and reduce the backlog of applications, focusing on the most vulnerable people.
The government will use consultation responses to inform a final Mental Capacity Act (2005) Code of Practice (COP) which will be laid in Parliament. This updated COP will incorporate changes in case law, legislation, organisational structures, terminology, and good practice since 2007, when the COP was first published.
The Mental Capacity Act 2005 and its supporting COP apply in England and Wales.
