Hearing Impairment: Mental Capacity
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help ensure that deaf people are not wrongly identified as lacking mental capacity due to communication barriers.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock
The Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005 already provides a legislative basis for providing interpreters, including British Sign Language interpreters, for people with specific communication needs. One of the foundational principles of the MCA is that individuals must be given all possible support to make, or participate in making, their own decisions. This includes taking "all practicable steps" to help them understand, weigh up information, and communicate their choice. Section 3.11 of the MCA Code of Practice provides detailed guidance on this.
My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care will also launch a joint consultation with the Ministry of Justice on the Liberty Protection Safeguards in the first half of next year. This consultation will seek the views of those affected, including members of the deaf community and experts who work with deaf individuals. The responses from this consultation will be used to inform a final MCA Code of Practice which will be laid in Parliament.
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