Response to the Consultation: New offence of ill-treatment or wilful neglect.
The Commission supports the government’s proposal to legislate for a new criminal offence of ill-treatment or wilful neglect of adults or children as the ability to prosecute individuals or organisations who ill-treat or wilfully neglect people will help to protect people’s human rights.
At present prosecutions for ill-treatment or wilful neglect can only be brought where the victim is mentally incapacitated as defined by the Mental Capacity Act 2005 or mentally disordered as defined by the Mental Health Act 1983.
The government propose that only formal health and social care arrangements should be within scope of this offence. The Commission’s
View is that the offence of ill-treatment or wilful neglect should apply irrespective of whether the ill-treatment or wilful neglect occurs in formal health and social care settings or informal situations.
At present the law only provides for prosecution of individuals ill-treating or wilfully neglecting people they are providing informal care for if the person being cared for lacks mental capacity as defined by the Mental Capacity Act 2005, or is mentally disordered as defined by the Mental Health Act 1983.
The Commissions’ Disability Harassment Inquiry found that abuse and neglect of disabled people sometimes takes place in their own homes and is sometimes carried out by people living with or visiting the victim. Many disabled people experiencing this type of ill-treatment or wilful neglect in their own homes do not lack mental capacity or are not mentally disordered. Applying the new offence to informal care arrangements would allow consistency in prosecuting perpetrators of ill-treatment or wilful neglect irrespective of the victim’s mental capacity or mental health status and ensure better protection of the human rights of people receiving informal care.
Last Updated: 23 May 2014