Tens of thousands of disabled people are being unlawfully detained in care homes and hospitals across England and Wales, according to a House of Lords committee report which concludes that legislation created to protect people with mental health conditions - including dementia and autism - has failed.
The committee's inquiry examines the impact of the Mental Capacity Act 2005, which is meant to "empower, protect and support people who lack mental capacity" by assessing whether vulnerable adults can make their own decisions and ensuring that others are acting in their best interests if they cannot.
Hospitals and care homes are meant to apply to the local authority to obtain a Deprivation of Liberty Safeguard if they want to keep someone under constant observation.
However human rights group Liberty told the inquiry that many do not, with the result that "thousands, if not tens of thousands, are being de facto detained unlawfully".
The inquiry also heard that some local authorities have wrongly been declaring potentially mentally incapacitated people well, to avoid taking responsibility for them.
Chair of the Committee, Lord Hardie said:
"The Committee believes that the Act is good and it needs to be implemented. What we want to see is a change in attitudes and practice across the health and social care sector which reflects the empowering ethos of Act. To achieve this we recommend that overall responsibility for the Act be given to an independent body whose task will be to oversee, monitor and drive forward implementation.
"Our other key finding concerns the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards. The intention of the safeguards is to provide legal protection for people who are being deprived of their liberty for their own safety. The evidence suggests that tens of thousands of people are being deprived of their liberty without the protection of the law, and without the protection that Parliament intended. The Government needs to go back to the drawing board to draft replacement provisions that are easy to understand and implement, and in keeping with the style and ethos of the Mental Capacity Act."
The House of Lords report on the Mental Capacity Act 2005 is available @ http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/lords-select/mental-capacity-act-2005/news/mca-press-release---13-march-2014/