Clause 34 - Appointment of independent consultees
Mental Capacity Bill
3:30 pm
Mr Paul Holmes (Shadow Minister (Work and Pensions), Work & Pensions; Chesterfield, Liberal Democrat)
I apologise if my point was covered this morning when I was elsewhere participating in a debate on disability benefits. There are two related issues in the Minister's argument. First, the Making Decisions Alliance is concerned about the terminology ''an independent consultee'' and says that it implies that such consultees would be more passive than that implied by the term ''an independent advocate''.
Secondly, who would employ the independent consultee? The Minister may cover that matter later, but there is always the fear that if the independent consultee is seen as an employee of social services or the national health service, he would still be in a more
passive role because he would be subjected to the budgetary constraints of the organisation for which he worked. The terminology is passive, but the question of who employs the independent consultee could also lead people to consider that the consultees might play a passive role.