When is a private care provider exercising a public function for the purposes of section 6 Human Rights Act 1998? (Sammut v Next Steps Mental Healthcare Ltd)
Local Government analysis: A healthcare provider which failed to properly authorise deprivation of liberty for a patient in its care was therefore not exercising a ‘special statutory power’ and so was not exercising a public function for the purposes of section 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA 1998). This was so despite the fact that the provider ‘appeared to believe that it had’ special statutory powers’, and that ‘a knowledgeable observer would know that the only lawful way to do what was being done was through the exercise of such a power’. In cases which fall outside the carefully circumscribed scope of section 73 of the Care Act 2014 (CA 2014), the principle in YL v Birmingham City continues to represent the present state of the law. Written by Siân McGibbon, barrister at Landmark Chambers.