Law Commission to fast-forward review of adult social care law

The Law Commission is to speed up its review of adult social care law, after the government asked it to bring the timetable for its final report forward.

The government’s advisory body on law reform has now agreed to publish its conclusions by the end of April 2011.

The move will co-ordinate better with the timetable for the Commission on adult social care funding, which is expected to report within a year. It will also give greater flexibility over the timing of legislation to implement the Law Commission’s recommendations.

The Law Commission, which had originally planned to report in the summer of 2011, launched its consultation on proposals for a single statute for adult social care law in February.

It believes that reform could save local authorities £15m in litigation costs and social worker time. The advisory body has stressed that it does not intend to create new duties for councils.

Frances Patterson QC, the Law Commissioner leading the project, said at the time that the existing system caused confusion, delay and inconsistency.

The deadline for submitting responses to the Law Commission’s consultation is 1 July 2010.

See also: It's time to reform community care law.