Hearing Impairment: Mental Capacity
Commons · Question 83912 · Tabled 21 Oct 2025 · Department of Health and Social Care · Official record
Answered 21 Nov 2025
Question
Asked by Lee Anderson
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help ensure that deaf people are not wrongly identified as lacking mental capacity due to communication barriers.
Answer
Answered by Stephen Kinnock, 21 Nov 2025
The Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005 already provides a legislative basis for providing interpreters, including British Sign Language interpreters, for people with specific communication needs. One of the foundational principles of the MCA is that individua...