The number of deprivation of liberty cases heard by the Court of Protection jumped almost three times last year, the Ministry of Justice has revealed.
The Court heard 1,499 cases over the 12 months, compared to only 525 during 2014. The majority were applications to authorise deprivations of liberty in shared accommodation (68 per cent), as well as appeals against previous authorisations in relation to care homes and hospitals.
The dramatic increase has been linked to the so-called Cheshire West case, a ruling by the Supreme Court in March 2014 which tightened standards and increased the number of deprivations requiring court authorisation.
Following the ruling, some commentators predicted a much larger increase in the number of deprivation applications to the Court per year, ranging as high as 30,000 in the case of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services.
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