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Mental Capacity (Amendment) Act 2019

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2Deprivation of liberty: authorisation of steps necessary for life-sustaining treatment or vital act

This section has no associated Explanatory Notes

For section 4B of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 substitute—

“4BDeprivation of liberty necessary for life-sustaining treatment or vital act

(1)If Conditions 1 to 4 are met, D is authorised to take steps which deprive P of liberty.

(2)Condition 1 is that the steps—

(a)are wholly or partly for the purpose of giving P life-sustaining treatment or doing any vital act, or

(b)consist wholly or partly of giving P life-sustaining treatment or doing any vital act.

(3)A vital act is any act which the person doing it reasonably believes to be necessary to prevent a serious deterioration in P’s condition.

(4)Condition 2 is that the steps are necessary in order to give the life-sustaining treatment or do the vital act.

(5)Condition 3 is that D reasonably believes that P lacks capacity to consent to D taking the steps.

(6)Condition 4 is that—

(a)subsection (7) applies, or

(b)there is an emergency.

(7)This subsection applies if—

(a)a decision relevant to whether D is authorised to deprive P of liberty is being sought from the court, or

(b)a responsible body is carrying out functions under Schedule AA1 with a view to determining whether to authorise arrangements that give rise to a deprivation of P’s liberty.

(8)In subsection (7) it does not matter—

(a)whether the decision mentioned in paragraph (a) relates to the steps mentioned in subsection (1);

(b)whether the arrangements mentioned in paragraph (b) include those steps.

(9)There is an emergency if D reasonably believes that—

(a)there is an urgent need to take the steps mentioned in subsection (1) in order to give the life-sustaining treatment or do the vital act, and

(b)it is not reasonably practicable before taking those steps—

(i)to make an application for P to be detained under Part 2 of the Mental Health Act,

(ii)to make an application within subsection (7)(a), or

(iii)to secure that action within subsection (7)(b) is taken.”

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