The Law Commission published its Tenth Programme of Law Reform in 2008, which included a project to review adult social care in England and Wales.
The scoping report was published in November of that year: Adult Social Care: Scoping Report. It recognised that the legislative framework for adult social care is inadequate, often incomprehensible and outdated. In February 2010, we published our consultation paper, which sets out our provisional proposals for law reform to be contained within a single adult social care statute: Adult Social Care: A Consultation Paper. The publication of the consultation paper is to be followed by a four-month period of public consultation. We urge all those with an interest in adult social care to respond.
A single statute
While there are differences in the law that applies in England and Wales, we believe that they are not currently such as to require separate statutes for each country. Our provisional view is that there should be a single unified adult social care statute for England and Wales.
Statutory principles
Unlike the Children Act 1989 and the Mental Capacity
