Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure Deprivation of Liberty Safeguard applications are processed within 21 days.

Processing Deprivation of Liberty Safeguard (DoLS) applications is the responsibility of local authorities. There is considerable variation in how local authorities process and complete their DoLS applications with some areas successfully processing applications within 21 days. It is the responsibility of local authorities to make sure their systems for managing DoLS are informed by best practice.