Cardiff and Vale University Health Board v NN [2024] EWCOP 61 (T3)

Application for declaration that NN lacked capacity to decide on termination of her pregnancy and that a termination was in her best interests. Also, a costs application by the OS arising from delays in making the application. 

NN is 32 years old. She has a history of substance abuse, a diagnosis of schizophrenia and has regularly been detained under the MHA. She was discharged in February 2024 but detained again in May when she was found to be pregnant, confirmed by ultrasound in June. Since then her attitude to whether to go through with the pregnancy vacillated while the treating clinicians concluded the continuation of NN’s pregnancy would involve risk of injury to her mental health greater than if the pregnancy were terminated.

Victoria Butler-Cole KC, sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge, accepts the submissions of the medics that, on the balance of probabilities, NN lacks capacity now and in the near future and allows the treatment plan. She also deals with submissions on behalf of the Official Solicitor who argued that the Health Board had delayed unreasonably in issuing proceedings, with traumatic consequences for NN and her family, and sought an order that the Health Board pay 100% of their costs. The deputy judge concluded at [42], that:

"in my view the Health Board did delay unreasonably in issuing proceedings, and that had a serious negative impact on NN. The negative impact goes wider than just NN. Her mother told the Official Solicitor’s caseworker after the procedure that this has been the worst experience of her life and that it was ‘absolutely barbaric’. She was clearly traumatised by watching her daughter having to continue her pregnancy well into the second trimester despite having requested a termination, and then supporting her through a late medical termination which resulted in the baby being born alive. I consider it appropriate to reflect the court’s disapproval of the Health Board’s conduct in this case and its impact on NN and her family in a costs order."

Read the judgment on the National Archives