PC (by her litigation friend the Official Solicitor) and another v A Local Authority [2013] EWCA Civ 478, [2013] All ER (D) 71 (May)
The determination of capacity under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 was decision specific. Some decisions, for example agreeing to marry or consenting to divorce, were status or act specific. Some other decisions, for example whether an individual should have contact with a particular individual, might be person specific. However, all decisions, whatever their nature, fell to be evaluated within the straightforward and clear structure of the Act, which, by ss 1–3 required the court to have regard to “a matter” requiring “a decision”. There was neither need nor justification for the plain words of the Act to be embellished. Further, the Act itself made a distinction between some decisions, set out in s 27, which as a category were exempt from the court’s welfare jurisdiction once the relevant incapacity was established, and other decisions, set out in s 17 of the Act, which were intended to relate to a “specified person” or specified medical treatments.
