Education
Mental Capacity (Duty to Assess)
“I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to require persons discharging functions on behalf of certain other persons to assess the mental capacity of those persons in specified circumstances; and for connected purposes. At issue is the devastating misuse of the Mental Capacity Act 2005, which has resulted in hundreds of preventable deaths. King’s College London found there were 160 of those deaths in 2023 alone. The Bill is in honour of Christopher Laskaris, whose mum Fiona is here. Christopher was not unlike many autistic children; he was a sensitive and intelligent boy, who once asked his mum to stop on the way to school to rescue a lamb stuck in a fence. I first met Fiona when I was eight. I had stayed in my bedroom and ignored her, perhaps because I was angry that she was buying my home off my dad. My mum had died a few months after I was born, and I was a sensitive boy. Well, they moved in. Christopher grew up in my childhood bedroom, and he loved the house as much as I did. As a young autistic man living alone in Leeds, Christopher was in danger. Despite Fiona raising credible doubts about his capacity on numerous occasions over eight years, she was never able to secure the mental capacity assessment that she needed to protect him. Horrifically, Christopher was exploited and murdered in his home by a man who had just been released from jail. Christopher was 24. Under this Bill, he would have been granted that mental capacity assessment, and he might still be with us. I have been working with Fiona for over two years to close this loophole. We have worked on a cross-party basis, with the Government, and with ITV, which has mounted a national campaign to expose this injustice across the county. I am grateful for all of that and for the result: that the Government have committed to review and reform the Mental Capacity Act. This Bill offers an opportunity to realise that commitment. The Mental Capacity Act states: “A person must be assumed to have capacity unless it is established that he lacks capacity.” Too often, public officials have used that presumption to not take action, failing vulnerable people, because if a person’s capacity is merely in doubt, but not yet established as lacking, then they are presumed to have capacity—and are too easily disregarded. The Bill has been drafted by one of the most prominent mental capacity lawyers in the country, Alex Ruck Keene, honorary King’s counsel. It has two key clauses: a duty to assess capacity where a person is reasonably understood to have any impairment or disturbance in the functioning of their mind or brain; and a duty to assess capacity where a person properly interested in a person’s circumstances has raised a concern as to their capacity. Although those safeguards are in the existing code of practice, they are too often ignored. The Bill seeks to bring those existing safeguards into law in order to mandate compliance. It will enhance the presumption of capacity by ensuring that it is not used against people to their cost or to the cost of others. Charlie Gooding’s mum Annabel is here in the Gallery. Charlie had Prader-Willi syndrome, which, in his case, gave him a genetic compulsion to overeat. Annabel repeatedly begged the authorities for help. They repeatedly ignored her. She locked the food cupboards but she could not prevent Charlie from buying food or going to food banks. Ultimately, his weight reached 30 stone, and he ate himself to death. Charlie was 35. Under this Bill, authorities would have had to grant Annabel that assessment, and Charlie might still be with us. Harley Watson’s mum Jo is here too. Harley was 12 years old when he died, after paranoid schizophrenic Terence Glover drove a car into a crowd of schoolchildren. Glover had told the police beforehand repeatedly in 999 calls that he intended to run over and kill schoolchildren. The police knew about his paranoid schizophrenia diagnosis and his impaired judgment, yet they took no action. Under this Bill, the police would have had to refer Glover for a mental capacity assessment, which might have saved an innocent 12-year-old boy. In 2014, a House of Lords Select Committee recognised the failures in the Mental Capacity Act. These past 12 years, Parliament has failed to act. The cost in lives lost is unimaginable. Among the hundreds of dead, Fiona lost her Christopher, Annabel lost her Charlie, and Jo lost her Harley. These three mums are here today not only in grief, but also with the highest of all hope: to save lives. I commend their courage and this Bill to the House. Question put and agreed to. Ordered, That Chris Coghlan, Ed Davey, Dr Danny Chambers, Sir Jeremy Hunt, Andy Slaughter, Florence Eshalomi, John Grady, Wera Hobhouse, Liz Jarvis, Vikki Slade, Manuela Perteghella, and Ben Maguire present the Bill. Chris Coghlan accordingly presented the Bill. Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 29 January, and to be printed (Bill 114).”
