50 signatures reached
To: The Houses of the Lords and the Commons
Safeguard the rights of those lacking mental capacity
Take heed of the wise words of The Lords in the second reading of the Mental Capacity Amendment Bill and amend the bill so that an appropriate level of safeguards is built into vulnerable people's worlds and so that advocacy and protections are fully available.
https://services.parliament.uk/bills/2017-19/mentalcapacityamendment.html
Why is this important?
Since 2005, the Mental Capacity Act has safeguarded the rights of people in care homes, hospitals and other places where they are deprived of their liberty.
A High Court ruling -namely the 'Cheshire West' ruling - resulted in vaste numbers of people becoming eligible for protections which ended up having a lot of duplication. There is a real need to streamline services.
The Law Commission drafted a bill to streamline the Act to give real efficiencies but preserved the balance of rights safeguarded in the original Act.
The bill introduced - and currently being rushed through Parliament - has controversially removed a lot of the protections of vulnerable peoples' rights and there is a real risk that the essence of the original Act will be watered down and lost.
The Lords - in their second reading of the Act - raised real concerns and there is very little time left to get this right.
The next reading is scheduled for early September.
We can get this right and urge the right people to also do so.
This petition seeks to gather public support to ensure that people currently in positions that none of us would choose to be have their basic human rights upheld and protected by systems with appropriate checks and balances without cutting corners.
