In the matter of D (a child) [2019] UKSC 42, the Supreme Court has decided that the parents of a 16 or 17-year-old cannot consent to their child being deprived of his or her liberty.
In 2014, in the Cheshire West case, the Supreme Court decided that a person was deprived of their liberty for the purposes of Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights if they were subject to continuous supervision and control, and not free to leave the place where they were living. It did not matter that those arrangements had been put in place to meet the person’s care needs, or to keep them safe and well – if it was a deprivation of liberty for a person without a mental disability or disorder to have their freedom limited in that way, then the same must apply to a person with a mental disability or disorder. Human rights are for everyone, and the important procedural safeguards that Article 5 contains – in particular, access to a court or tribunal to challenge your deprivation of liberty – needed to be applied to people who could not consent to their care arrangements.
Read more: Transparency Project, https://is.gd/RKgVWw
