Govt urged to extend human rights act

Govt urged to close care home loophole

Wednesday, 20, Jun 2007 12:00

The government has been challenged to tighten human rights laws to apply to people in private care homes.

The call comes after the House of Lords ruled people in private care homes are not covered by existing human rights legislation.

Law Lords voted three to two that residents placed and funded in a private care home by a local authority are covered by the Human Rights Act.

The ruling related to the case of an 83-year-old Alzheimer's patient (known as Y1) who was threatened with eviction from her privately run Birmingham care home. Her lawyers argued evicting her would violate her right to a family life.

The Court of Appeal rejected Yl v Birmingham City Council and Others six months ago, bound by a previous ruling that private care homes are not public bodies.

Campaigners now argue a change in the law is the only way to protect vulnerable people placed in care homes by local authorities.

The human rights group Liberty spoke out against the ruling.

Anna Fairclough, the lawyer who handled Liberty's intervention in the case, commented: "It would seem that judges do not have the monopoly on enhancing human rights' protection and government does not have the monopoly on diminishing it.

"It is open to parliament to be the last Court of Human Rights and enact specific care home legislation to prevent local authorities from contracting out of dignity for Britain’s elderly."

Labour MP Andrew Dismore has introduced his own private members' bill to extend the Human Rights Act to residents in private care homes.

Mr Dismore, who is chair of the joint committee on human rights, condemned the Lords decision and said it ran counter to what parliament intended when it passed the Human Rights Act.

"The Law Lords have clearly and absolutely kicked the ball back to the government and parliament. Legislation is now the only option to correct this appalling anomaly," he said.

Mr Dismore continued: "The government must now either back my private member's bill when it returns to the Commons in ten days time, or urgently promote its own legislation to correct this serious gap in legal protection for the most vulnerable in our society."

Help the Aged warned the law in its current form risks failing vulnerable people.

Kate Jopling, head of public affairs, said the latest "disappointing decision" from the Lords was a "sickening blow" to older people.

The vast majority of older people receiving care do so from the private or voluntary sector, she said, and they are vulnerable to neglect, abuse or eviction.

Ms Jopling said: "If we are to take any consolation from this case however, it is that their Lordships have now sent out a clear challenge to the government to rectify this horrendous anomaly through legislation.

"This is a challenge to which the government must rise."