Guidance

Liberty Protection Safeguards: deprivation of liberty and authorisation of steps necessary for life-sustaining treatment or vital acts (section 4b)

Updated 3 August 2021

Applies to England and Wales

© Crown copyright 2021

This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.

Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.

This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/liberty-protection-safeguards-factsheets/liberty-protection-safeguards-deprivation-of-liberty-and-authorisation-of-steps-necessary-for-life-sustaining-treatment-or-vital-acts-section-4b

The Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS) will provide protection for people aged 16 and above who are or who need to be deprived of their liberty in order to enable their care or treatment and lack the mental capacity to consent to their arrangements.

People who might have a LPS authorisation include those with dementia, autism and learning disabilities who lack the relevant capacity.

In exceptional circumstances it may be necessary to take steps which amount to a deprivation of liberty on a person before a decision to authorise such arrangements has been made by the ‘responsible body’, or a relevant decision is made by the court.

Exceptional circumstances are those in which it’s necessary to carry out life-sustaining treatment or a vital act.

A vital act means any act which the person performing the act reasonably believes to be necessary to prevent a serious deterioration in the person’s condition.

In these circumstances, there are 4 conditions that must be met before a decision maker can carry out the necessary steps to deprive a person of their liberty.

Conditions

  1. The steps consist of, or are for the purpose of, giving life-sustaining treatment to the person or for doing any vital act.

  2. The steps are necessary in order to give the life-sustaining treatment or carry out the vital act.

  3. There is a reasonable belief that the person lacks capacity to consent to the steps.

  4. An authorisation to deprive someone of their liberty is being sought from the responsible body under the LPS, or a relevant decision is being sought from the court, or there is an emergency.

Back to top