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‘A sickening blow’ is how campaigners have described a landmark decision of the House of Lords on the rights of an 84-year-old care home resident with Alzheimer’s disease. It was a bitterly-fought case, which divided the five Law Lords 3-2 in their judgment that an elderly woman who was threatened with eviction from her privately-run care home did not enjoy the protection of the Human Rights Act (HRA), unlike residents of local authority-run care homes.

The woman had been placed in a private care home by her local council. The council threatened her with eviction from the home, because of an alleged ‘irreconcilable breakdown’ in relations between her family and the home’s management. She argued that the eviction was a violation of her right to family life, which is guaranteed under the HRA. The Law Lords ruled, however, that a private home is not exercising a public function when it cares for people referred to it by a council, and is therefore not bound by the Act.

Many vulnerable older people live and are cared for in homes operated by the private or voluntary sectors. Nine out of ten care homes in England and Wales are now privately run. The Law Lords’ ruling means that these residents cannot bring an action under the HRA if they are deprived of their human rights. The right of residents of care homes run by local authorities to bring actions under the HRA is clearly established.

Campaigners, including Help the Aged, agree that their Lordships have thrown down a challenge to the Government to rectify the anomaly through legislation to ensure that care home residents living in establishments in both the private and voluntary sectors enjoy the same level of protection under the HRA.

The civil rights group Liberty has also condemned the ruling, calling for urgent legislation to prevent local authorities from ‘contracting out of dignity for Britain's elderly’.

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