Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards
(asked on 26th November 2024) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the number of uncompleted Deprivation of Liberty Safeguard applications per year since 2009.
The annual Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) Assessments consist of data collected from local authorities in England, who are the supervisory bodies for authorising deprivations of liberty for adults in care homes and hospitals. The aim of this publication is to inform users about aspects of DoLS activity.
Since the Cheshire West court ruling in 2014, the definition of a ‘deprivation of liberty’ under DoLS widened, and so did the number of cases local authorities had to assess. The increase in cases has led to a backlog. The following table shows the number of Deprivation of Liberty Protection Safeguard applications received, completed, and not completed, each year from 2013/14 to 2023/24:
Year | Total number of applications received | Total number of completed applications | Total number of applications not completed |
2013/14 | 13,715 | 13,040 | N/A |
2014/15 | 137,540 | 62,645 | N/A |
2015/16 | 195,840 | 105,055 | 101,740 |
2016/17 | 217,235 | 151,970 | 108,545 |
2017/18 | 227,400 | 181,785 | 125,630 |
2018/19 | 240,455 | 216,005 | 131,350 |
2019/20 | 263,940 | 243,300 | 129,780 |
2020/21 | 256,610 | 246,025 | 119,740 |
2021/22 | 270,650 | 254,215 | 124,145 |
2022/23 | 300,765 | 289,150 | 126,100 |
2023/24 | 332,455 | 323,870 | 123,790 |
Source: data is published by NHS Digital, and is available at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/mental-capacity-act-2005-deprivation-of-liberty-safeguards-assessments
Data was not routinely collected on applications not completed prior to 2015/16.