The Court of Protection In 2021

In the second calendar year of the pandemic, Covid-19 has been a recurrent theme in Court of Protection cases but there have been many other notable decisions, and developments which are summarised below:

• Whether protected parties should be given the Covid-19 vaccination against their parents’ wishes
• The use of remote examinations in applications to detain vulnerable individuals under the Mental Health Act 1983
• The Court of Protection deciding whether to impose custodial sentences for repeated breaches of Court orders – AB v HB & Anor
• The Court deciding whether it was in the best interests of a Protected Party based overseas to be returned to Britain – AB V XS
• How Britney Spears’ conservatorship difficulties might have evolved in England and Wales
• The Court’s power to intervene when a predatory marriage might be about to take place
• The social care reforms and implications for funding
• How the Court of Protection approaches situations where there are no suitable options for accommodation or care for a protected party – Re W (young person: unavailability of suitable placement) [2021]
• Whether a protected party could be taken to visit a sex worker
• Allowing a protected party to die when there is no prospect of recovery

In the next year, we will expect more cases relating to Covid-19 and several themes are recurring, such as contact with protected parties in care homes, the reliability of remote capacity assessments, deprivations of liberty during the pandemic and of course, vaccinations. We expect also to see the Liberty Protection Safeguards come into force in April 2022.