Mental Capacity Act 2005
The Mental Capacity Act 2005 is the law governing decision-making for people aged 16 and over in England and Wales who may lack capacity to make a particular decision at a particular time.
Mental Capacity Act 2005 in practice
It rests on five principles: capacity is assumed, people must be supported to decide before being treated as unable to, an unwise decision is not evidence of incapacity, decisions made for someone who lacks capacity must be in their best interests, and they must be the least restrictive option.
Capacity is decision-specific and time-specific. Someone may lack capacity to manage their finances while retaining capacity to decide what to eat or where to go today, and a blanket judgment that a person “lacks capacity” is one of the clearest signs a service does not understand the Act.
For providers, the practical test is whether capacity assessments and best interests decisions are recorded for the specific decisions actually being made, rather than assumed once and never revisited.
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