Mental Health and Incapacity Law Conference 2026

This conference aims to provide delegates with a comprehensive and practical update on recent developments in Mental Health and Incapacity law in Scotland. Through contributions from the judiciary, senior legal practitioners, academics, and representatives from key public bodies, the event will explore the evolving legal landscape and its implications for everyday professional practice.

Delegates will gain an understanding of the latest case law, legislative reform, and policy developments affecting adults with incapacity, mental health services, and the protection of vulnerable individuals. The conference will also highlight current challenges and emerging trends, with a focus on ensuring that legal, medical, and social care professionals are equipped to uphold the rights, dignity, and wellbeing of those they support.

CPD 5.5 hours

PEAT Outcome - Relevant legal knowledge

OBJECTIVES

By the end of the day, participants will:

• Be informed of the most recent judicial and legislative developments in Mental Health and Incapacity law.
• Understand the practical and ethical implications of these changes for legal and health professionals.
• Hear directly from the judiciary and tribunal representatives on current priorities, pressures, and procedural issues.
• Engage in discussion on the future direction of law and policy in this field, particularly in relation to children and young persons’ mental health.

PARTICIPANTS

This conference will be of particular interest to solicitors and trainees working in the area of mental health and incapacity law, social workers, advocacy workers and Mental Health Officers. It will also be of interest to tribunal members and those in the medical profession including GPs, psychiatrists and nurses.

SPEAKERS

The speakers are

Chair: Rachel Walker, Partner, Legal Services Agency, Mental Health Team

Sheriff Michael Hanlon

Sheriff Hanlon graduated from the University of Glasgow with a degree in law, and from Glasgow Graduate School of Law with a Masters in Human Rights Law. He started his career with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. He worked at the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, as Judicial Secretary to Lord President Hamilton and as the Director of Legal and Policy at the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority. In 2015 he was appointed a Convener for the Additional Support Needs Tribunal. He was appointed a Summary Sheriff in 2016.

David Leighton, Advocate, Themis Advocates.

Since calling at the Bar, although practicing across a range of areas, David’s primary areas of practice have been Family Law and Public Law, in various forms. David is often instructed in the field of Family Law and has been involved in cases regarding children, including all aspects of private and public law. He has also dealt with financial provision following upon the end of relationships, including cohabitants claims on death and otherwise. David has been involved in a wide variety of mental health and incapacity cases, in which he has a particular interest. He has appeared before the Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland, on appeal and in judicial review proceedings – acting in cases dealing with restricted patients and also civil patients. In relation to incapacity cases, he has appeared in the Sheriff Court, Sheriff Appeal Court and Court of Session. David also regularly undertakes work for prisoners, principally through the mechanism of judicial review. David deals with human rights issues in his practice across many areas of law, including novel or unusual challenges. He regularly appears for clients in the Court of Session and Sheriff Courts throughout Scotland.

Adrian Ward is a recognised national and international expert in adult incapacity law. His authorship includes many books over the last 40 years published at home and in many languages abroad. His ‘Adult Incapacity’ and ‘Adults with Incapacity Legislation’ continue to be authoritative texts on Scots law. His joint authorship includes ‘Mental Handicap and the Law’, ‘The International Protection of Adults’, and the ‘Three Jurisdictions Report’. As consultant to the Council of Europe, he was author of ‘Enabling citizens to plan for incapacity’. He has been invited to contribute chapters to various textbooks, including ‘From past to future: the emergence and development of advance choices’ to appear in this year’s Yearbook of Private International Law. President of organising committee of the World Congress on Adult Capacity, Edinburgh, 2022, his presentation at which led to the European Law Institute project on advance choices, on which he co-leads the participating team of 32 European experts. In his fifth decade of writing for Scots Law Times, all three instalments of his article ‘Scotland in 2024: a human rights blackspot’ are likely to have been published by the time of the conference, to which they form a backdrop.

Professor Jill Stavert, Jill is Professor of Mental Health and Capacity Law and lead of the Centre for Mental Health Practice Policy and Law Research at Edinburgh Napier University. Her areas of research and expertise are mental health and capacity law, related international, European and national human rights and associated law and policy reform. She was a member of the Scottish Mental Health Law Review (Scott Review) (2019-2022) and before that she was involved in aspects of the Scottish Government review of the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act and an expert adviser to the Independent Review of Learning Disability and Autism in the Mental Health Act. Jill was Principal Investigator on the Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland: the Views and Experiences of Patients, Named Persons, Practitioners and Tribunal Panel Members project (funded by the Nuffield Foundation) (2017-2022). She currently participates in the Scottish Government mental health and capacity law reform programme and is a Principal Investigator of the ‘A Human Rights Implementation Assessment for Mental Health Law and Policy’ project led by La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia.

Fiona Brown, Public Guardian (Scotland)

Fiona has worked for Scottish Courts & Tribunals Service for the past 32 years, carrying out variety of operational and strategic roles, across various locations. She started in 1993 and spent the first half of her career working within Sheriff Court Operations. Fiona moved to the Office of the Public Guardian and Office of the Accountant of Court in 2014 as Deputy, taking up the role as Public Guardian and Accountant of Court in August 2018. Fiona is also one of the Directors of Scottish Courts & Tribunals Service.

Laura Dunlop KC, President, Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland

Laura practised at the bar for 34 years. As well as courtroom experience at all levels, she has extensive experience of public inquiries. She served as Procurator to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland between 2005 and 2023, and was a commissioner on the Scottish Law Commission from 2009 to 2014, undertaking a project on deprivation of liberty in adult incapacity law. She has held three Tribunal roles: legal member of the Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland from 2016; and of the Pensions Appeal Tribunal for Scotland 2016 to 2019, and Deputy Judge of the Upper Tribunal (Administrative Appeals Chamber) since 2018.

PROGRAMME

09:30 – 10:00 Registration and Coffee

10.00 – 10:10 Welcome and Opening Remarks
Chairperson: Rachel Walker, Partner, LSA’s Mental Health Department

10:10 – 11:00 A View from the Bench in Relation to Adults with Incapacity (AWI)
Keynote Speaker: Sheriff Michael Hanlon

11:00 – 11:15 Morning Coffee Break

11:15 – 12:00 Caselaw Update
David Leighton, Advocate

12:00 – 12:45 Practical Implications of Recent Cases
Adrian Ward

12:45 – 13:30 Lunch (provided)

13:30 – 14:15 Law, Rights, and the Future of Children and Young Persons’ Mental Health
Professor Jill Stavert

14:15 – 15:00 An Update on Office of the Public Guardian Matters
Fiona Brown, Public Guardian (Scotland)

15:00 – 15:15 Afternoon Tea Break

15:15 – 16:00 An Update from the Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland
Laura Dunlop KC, President of the Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland

16:00 – 16:30 Panel Discussion and Q&A Session
All Speakers

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