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Publication, Part of

Mental Capacity Act 2005, Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (England), Annual Report 2013-14

Official statistics
Publication Date:
Geographic Coverage:
England
Geographical Granularity:
Country, Regions, Councils with Adult Social Services Responsibilities (CASSRs), Local Authorities
Date Range:
01 Apr 2013 to 31 Mar 2014

Summary

This report provides the key findings from the Mental Capacity Act 2005, Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) data collection for the period 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2014.
 
A Deprivation of Liberty (DoL) refers to a restriction of an individual's freedom such as physical restraint or constant supervision. The DoLS are a set of legal requirements which ensure that individuals are only deprived of their liberty in a necessary and proportionate way and provide protection for individuals once a DoL has been authorised.

Please note that on 17 December 2014 an updated version of this publication was issued. The following subject areas have been updated:

  • Information about the purpose of best interest's assessments
  • Information about DoLS assessors
  • Information about when a DoL is occurring but applications are not granted
  • Information about CQC service types

The page numbers affected by these updates can be found in the 'Version Control' section of the publication. Additionally, information about CQC service types has been updated in Annex C which relates to the Excel file of tables and charts used in the publication.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused by these errors.

Highlights

During 2013-14 in England, 13,000 DoLS applications were completed and this reflects a 10 per cent increase compared to the previous reporting year.

 

Of the applications completed in 2013-14, 59 per cent (7,600 applications) were granted and overall, this percentage has increased since the legislation came into force.

 

Where completed applications were not granted (5,400 applications), the most frequent reason was the best interest assessment, which looks at whether a deprivation of liberty is necessary and proportionate.

 

Individuals can have multiple DoLS applications and authorisation periods during any reporting period. The 13,000 applications completed during 2013-14 related to 9,400 different individuals. The majority of individuals (73 per cent) had only one application made for them during the reporting period.

 

Twenty three out of every 100,000 men and 22 out of every 100,000 women in England had a completed DoLS application in 2013-14. The likelihood of having an application increases considerably as age group increases.

 

A total of 8,500 authorised deprivations of liberty were active during 2013-14, of which 5,800 completed during the period. The majority (70 per cent) of the completed authorisations were in place for less than 3 months.

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Last edited: 14 September 2020 5:00 pm