Case summary: PJ v A Local Health Board and Others [2015] UKUT 480 (AAC) (Charles J)

PJ was a man on a Community Treatment Order (CTO) which required him to live at a care home and abide by the regime there. PJ sought discharge of the CTO on the basis that the arrangements for his care amounted to an unlawful deprivation of liberty in breach of Article 5. The Mental Health Review Tribunal (MHRT) refused the application holding that PJ was not deprived of his liberty. In the Upper Tribunal, Charles J emphasised the different elements of the test for deprivation of liberty. He held that the MHRT had erred in law: (1) in its approach to the assessment of the degree of supervision and control required; and (2) by divorcing that consideration from the freedom of PJ to leave. The MHRT had overlooked, and failed to take into account, the guidance given in Cheshire West that the reason or purpose of the relevant conditions was not relevant to the assessment of whether the objective element of a deprivation of liberty was satisfied.