Capacity legislation - to protect the rights of adults who cannot make decisions for themselves - remains a priority for health chiefs.

That was the assurance from Health Minister David Ashford in Tynwald last week.

Tanya August-Hanson MLC asked the Minister what plans he had to bring in laws to ensure that ’people who lack capacity are protected from having decisions made for them that are not in their best interests’.

Mr Ashford told her: ’The introduction of legislation to ensure that the island has in place a modern and clear legal framework which safeguards the rights, dignity and wellbeing of those who lack the capacity to make decisions for themselves, is the key legislative priority for the department.’

Safeguards

Work had already been taken place to develop a policy and legislative changes in England and Wales are now being reviewed.

The Minister explained what was changing in England and Wales.

’The existing deprivation of liberty safeguards are to be replaced with a new system for authorising deprivations of liberty of care,’ Mr Ashford said.

He said it was hoped that drafting instructions for a new law in the island could be submitted to the attorney general’s chambers in the early autumn.