39 Essex Chambers June Mental Capacity Report – and AGNI
The June 2026 Mental Capacity Report is now out. Highlights this month include: In the Health, Welfare and Deprivation of Liberty Report: coverage of ‘year zero’ as regards deprivation of liberty following the AGNI case (the 'rapid reaction'…
The contact constraints on the Court of Protection
The issue of visiting in care homes is a distinctly hot topic at the time of writing (May 2026). Linked, it appears, to high profile media coverage, DHSC has announced a review of Regulation 9A of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated…
Alex Ruck Keene
Alex Ruck Keene
Thank you very much to those who have been in touch about my website - it is being upgraded and should be back online by the end of the weekend.
39 Essex Chambers May Mental Capacity Report
The May 2026 Mental Capacity Report is now out. Highlights this month include: In the Health, Welfare and Deprivation of Liberty Report: Townsend updated, sex before the Court of Protection again, and a profoundly disturbing report on dementia in acute…
Position statements, transparency and the Court of Protection
The Court of Appeal has allowed the appeal against the decision of Poole J in Re AB (Disclosure of Position Statements) EWCOP 25 (T3) and made clear that the guidance given in that judgment about providing position statements to…
Revisiting habitual residence – when and how the Court of Protection can do so
The case of Neath Port Talbot Country Borough Council v CK & Ors EWCOP 47 (T3) is the sequel to this decision, in which HHJ Miller set out a helpful worked example of determining whether a person’s habitual residence…
Instructing experts, and how long does the leash have to be for the acid test to be satisfied?
Bristol City Council v CC & Ors EWCOP 19 (T3) is both an important and an interesting decision. It is important because Theis J set out a clear set of expectations instructing experts, and interesting…
Gretna Green and children’s capacity – in discussion with Jonathan Brown
In the latest 'in conversation with,' I talk to Dr Jonathan Brown about the very different approach to the decision-making authority granted children in Scotland, prompted by his article arising out of this case decided in…
AGNI – resources page, podcast and shedinar video
I have started a resources page on the AGNI case, and will start to populate it as more guidance and the like emerges. The page includes links to a shedinar video that I have recorded about deprivation of liberty after the case, and also a podcast…
Supreme Court overrules Cheshire West
In A Reference by the Attorney General for Northern Ireland of a devolution issue under paragraph 34 of Schedule 10 to the Northern Ireland Act 1998…...
Alex Ruck Keene
I have started a resources page on the AGNI case, and will start to populate it as more guidance and the like emerges. The page includes links to a shedinar video that I have recorded about deprivation of liberty after the case, and also a podcast recorded with Community Care, which talks more broadly about the case.
In A Reference by the Attorney General for Northern Ireland of a devolution issue under paragraph 34 of Schedule 10 to the Northern Ireland Act 1998 UKSC 16, a seven member Panel of the Supreme Court has unanimously overruled the 2014 majority decision in Cheshire West. The judgment is long and detailed. A summary by the Supreme Court can be found…
The June 2026 Mental Capacity Report is now out. Highlights this month include: In the Health, Welfare and Deprivation of Liberty Report: coverage of ‘year zero’ as regards deprivation of liberty following the AGNI case (the 'rapid reaction' webinar held on the day the judgment was handed down can be found here). In the Property and Affairs Report…
The issue of visiting in care homes is a distinctly hot topic at the time of writing (May 2026). Linked, it appears, to high profile media coverage, DHSC has announced a review of Regulation 9A of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, itself introduced in England in the wake of the pandemic. Regulation 9A does not, however, apply to judges making decisions in the Court of Protection.
