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21/06/2007
Human Rights Act fails to cover private care
Due to a legal loophole a ruling by the House of Lords has left over 300,000 elderly people with no protection against eviction from private care nursing homes.
The Law Lords three to two majority ruling decided that people placed in private care homes by their local authority did not have the same protection under the Human Rights Act as those in local authority homes.
Held The Aged branded the ruling as a "sickening blow" to older people, while civil rights group Liberty described the ruling as "contracting out the dignity of Britain's elderly."
There have been calls for urgent corrective legislation by government to remove the anomaly.
Around nine out of ten care homes in England are run privately.
The Law Lords ruling is in relation to an 84-year-old woman in the Birmingham City Council area who had been threatened with eviction following a disagreement between the woman's family and Southern Cross Healthcare.
Legal argument centred on whether the care home was providing a public function and was therefore bound by the Human Rights Act.
The Court of Appeal had already found against the woman.
Altering the relevant legislation is the only recourse to alter the ruling, which their Lords noted had produced a "sharp difference of opinion."
Help the Aged said the ruling leaves vulnerable older people open to "neglect, abuse and eviction, without redress through the Human Rights Act."
The government, via the Lord Chancellor, had supported the woman's appeal.
However, an agreement reached before the appeal means that the woman has been allowed to stay at the home.
(SP/JM)
The Law Lords three to two majority ruling decided that people placed in private care homes by their local authority did not have the same protection under the Human Rights Act as those in local authority homes.
Held The Aged branded the ruling as a "sickening blow" to older people, while civil rights group Liberty described the ruling as "contracting out the dignity of Britain's elderly."
There have been calls for urgent corrective legislation by government to remove the anomaly.
Around nine out of ten care homes in England are run privately.
The Law Lords ruling is in relation to an 84-year-old woman in the Birmingham City Council area who had been threatened with eviction following a disagreement between the woman's family and Southern Cross Healthcare.
Legal argument centred on whether the care home was providing a public function and was therefore bound by the Human Rights Act.
The Court of Appeal had already found against the woman.
Altering the relevant legislation is the only recourse to alter the ruling, which their Lords noted had produced a "sharp difference of opinion."
Help the Aged said the ruling leaves vulnerable older people open to "neglect, abuse and eviction, without redress through the Human Rights Act."
The government, via the Lord Chancellor, had supported the woman's appeal.
However, an agreement reached before the appeal means that the woman has been allowed to stay at the home.
(SP/JM)
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