The Mental Capacity Act and the new Court of Protection
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.19164/ijmhcl.v1i12.165Abstract
The Mental Capacity Bill was introduced in the House of Commons on 17 June 2004, and received the Royal Assent on 7 April 2005.
The Act, which has been fifteen years in gestation and involved an extensive consultation process, abolishes the existing Court of Protection, and replaces it with a new court, also to be known as the Court of Protection, which will have jurisdiction to deal with all areas of decision-making for people who lack capacity. Thus, it will combine the personal welfare and healthcare jurisdiction currently exercised by the Family Division with the property and financial decision-making jurisdiction of the present Court of Protection. The new court will be regional, served by a centralised administration office and registry.
It is important for people with disputes or problems to have access to the most effective means of resolving them, and in many cases the existing health and social welfare mechanisms, mediation or discussion will be sufficient. Although no one will be compelled to mediate before going to court, the current policy is that the new court should be the last resort for the resolution of complex or particularly sensitive cases, or when other forms of dispute resolution have been tried without success.
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