National Preventive Mechanism Tenth Annual Report 2018–19 Northern Ireland Mental Capacity Act (2016) was due to be completed in 2020 and there are concerns that this will be delayed.12 Another consequence of the absence of an executive is the risk of ‘stagnation and decay’ in updating policies and advocating effectively for resources for change. The Institute for Government examined the impact of governing without Ministers and found that the absence of discussion about long-term funding of health care, including for mental health, was a particular issue.13 Mental health law In mental health law there have been significant developments across the UK during the year. One change of note is that in January 2018, the Department of Health became the Department of Health and Social Care. In England and Wales, in July 2018, the government published a Mental Capacity (Amendment) Bill which was passed in May 2019. The Act reforms the process for authorising arrangements for a person’s care or treatment which amount to a deprivation of their liberty, where the person does not have the capacity to consent to these arrangements. Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) are to be replaced with what is intended to be a simpler scheme known as the Liberty Protection Safeguards. This change followed a 2014 Supreme Court ruling on the case of P v. Cheshire West, in which three individuals with severe learning disabilities were living in arrangements deemed by the court to represent a deprivation of liberty. The ruling placed increasing burdens on local authorities and health and social care practitioners administering the DoLS. The Law Commission subsequently recommended that DoLS be abolished and proposed a replacement scheme set out in a draft Bill.14 The Act will be implemented in 2020, prior to which a revised Code of Practice will be published. During the passage of the Bill a proposal to introduce a new statutory definition of deprivation of liberty was dropped. The Mental Health Units (Use of Force) Act 2018 was enacted in November 2018. The Act – which will increase protections and oversight of use of force in mental health settings in England – will come into force in 2020. The Act’s provisions include stronger requirements and greater regulation over recording and reporting restraint in such settings, and for police to wear body cameras when called to assist health care staff in them. Importantly, the death of any patient in a mental health unit resulting from the use of force by staff there, will be subject to a review process by the Secretary of State. This legislation is known as Seni’s Law, having arisen from the case of Olaseni ‘Seni’ Lewis who died in 2010 after prolonged restraint by 11 police officers 12 The parts of the Bill providing for the authorisation of deprivation of liberty eventually came into force on 2 December 2019. They allow a panel to authorise the detention, in circumstances amounting to a deprivation of liberty, of a person aged 16 and above with impaired capacity in a place where appropriate care or treatment is available for them. See https://www.mentalcapacitylawandpolicy.org.uk/all-or-at-least-part-go-for-the-mental-capacity-act-northern-ireland/ [accessed 05/12/19] 13 Institute for Government, September 2019, Governing without ministers, https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/ sites/default/files/publications/governing-without-ministers-northern-ireland.pdf [accessed 11/12/19] 14 Law Commission, March 2017, Mental Capacity and Deprivation of Liberty, https://www.lawcom.gov.uk/project/mentalcapacity-and-deprivation-of-liberty/ [accessed 04/12/19] 16