Official Statistics

Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards, England, 2025 to 2026: statistical commentary

Published 5 November 2026

Applies to England

Introduction

These official statistics provide findings for England from the Mental Capacity Act 2005, Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) data collection for the period 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026. DoLS are a legal framework applying to individuals who lack the mental capacity to consent to the arrangements for their care. Where such care may amount to a ‘deprivation of liberty’ the arrangements are independently assessed to ensure they are in the best interests of the individual concerned. The data is collected from councils with adult social services responsibilities (CASSRs), who are the supervisory bodies for authorising deprivations of liberty of adults in care homes and hospitals. For ease of reading and consistency ‘local authority’ will be used subsequently to refer to CASSRs. All of the 153 local authorities except Redbridge Council provided data for 2025 to 2026.

The aim of this publication is to inform users about aspects of DoLS activity, including:

• the profile of people for whom a DoLS application was received
• applications completed and their outcome
• applications not completed

This is the second time that the DoLS report has been published by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). It was previously published by NHS England (see Mental Capacity Act 2005, Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards).

The 2025 to 2026 interactive DoLS dashboard on NHS England’s adult social care data hub is planned for release early next year. This will present the main points of this release together with local authority-level figures, allowing users to compare data at both England and local authority level.

Statistics on challenges to DoLS authorisations are published by the Ministry of Justice (see Ministry of Justice, family court statistics, quarterly).

Main points

During 2025 to 2026:

• 380,715 applications for DoLS were received (up 4.3% from 364,900 in 2024 to 2025). The proportion of DoLS applications which have an urgent authorisation attached was 58.2%

• 372,145 applications for DoLS were completed (up 5.1% from 353,935 in 2024 to 2025), of which:

  • 168,995 (45.4%) were fully assessed
  • 16,015 (4.3%) were partially assessed
  • 187,130 (50.3%) were closed without any assessments
• 4,160 completed, fully assessed applications for DoLS were not granted (2.5% of all applications that were completed and fully assessed, the same as 2024 to 2025)
• 116,355 applications for DoLS were not completed at year end (down by 2.1% from 118,850 in 2024 to 2025)
• 22.8% of standard applications for DoLS were completed within the statutory timeframe of 21 days (up 1.7 percentage points from 21.1% in 2024 to 2025)
• for DoLS applications that were completed, the average (mean) length of time from receiving an application to completion was 117 days (down from 126 days in 2024 to 2025)

All data can be found in the accompanying data tables.

DoLS applications

There were 380,715 applications for DoLS received during 2025 to 2026. During the year, 372,145 applications were completed and 116,355 applications were not completed by the end of the year. Figure 1 shows the equivalent time series for these figures back to the year 2015 to 2016.

Figure 1: number of DoLS applications by year, England

Source: DoLS collection, 2015 to 2016 to 2025 to 2026

Figure 1 shows trends in DoLS applications received, completed and not completed between 2015 to 2016 and 2025 to 2026. The number of applications received increased overall across the period, rising from 195,840 in 2015 to 2016 to 380,715 in 2025 to 2026. Growth was steady up to 2019 to 2020, dipped slightly in 2020 to 2021 during COVID-19, and then increased more sharply in the most recent years before tailing off slightly in 2025 to 2026.

The number of completed applications has also risen over time, increasing from 105,055 in 2015 to 2016 to 372,145 in 2025 to 2026. The number of completed applications grew year on year up to 2019 to 2020, remained at a similar level in 2020 to 2021, and then increased steadily through to 2025 to 2026. Although the number of completed applications is consistently lower than the number of applications received, the gap between the 2 has narrowed from 90,785 in 2015 to 2016, to 8,570 in 2025 to 2026.

The number of applications not completed increased from 108,545 in 2015 to 2016 to a peak of 131,350 in 2018 to 2019, before falling in 2020 to 2021. In the most recent years, this figure remained relatively stable at around 120,000 to 126,000, decreasing further to 116,355 in 2025 to 2026.

Completed and not completed DoLS applications

Completed applications

During 2025 to 2026, 372,145 applications for DoLS were completed. Of these:

• 168,995 were fully assessed (up 5.8% from 2024 to 2025)
• 16,015 were closed with partial assessment (down 0.7% from 2024 to 2025)
• 187,130 were closed without any assessments (up 5.0% from 2024 to 2025)

Figure 2: number of DoLS applications completed, England, 2023 to 2024 to 2025 to 2026

Source: DoLS collection, 2023 to 2024 to 2025 to 2026

Figure 2 shows the number of completed applications for DoLS that were fully assessed, partially assessed and closed without assessment for 2023 to 2024 to 2025 to 2026.

In all 3 years, the largest category was applications closed without any assessment, increasing from 162,655 in 2023 to 2024 to 187,130 in 2025 to 2026. The proportion closed without assessment remained stable at 50.2% in 2023 to 2024, and 50.3% in 2025 to 2026.

The number of fully assessed applications also increased over the period, from 145,945 to 168,995, remaining the second largest category in all 3 years. The proportion of fully assessed applications remained stable at 45.1% in 2023 to 2024, and 45.4% in 2025 to 2026.

A smaller number of applications were closed with partial assessment, rising slightly from 15,270 in 2023 to 2024 to 16,015 in 2025 to 2026. The proportions remained very similar, with 4.7% of applications closed with partial assessment in 2023 to 2024, and 4.3% in 2025 to 2026.

Fully assessed and not granted applications

In 2025 to 2026, 4,160 completed, fully assessed applications for DoLS were not granted. This was 2.5% of all completed, fully assessed applications, the same as in 2024 to 2025.

Figure 3: proportion of completed, fully assessed applications for DoLS that were granted and not granted, England, 2024 to 2025 and 2025 to 2026

Source: DoLS collection, 2024 to 2025 and 2025 to 2026

Figure 3 shows the number of completed, fully assessed applications for DoLS that were granted and not granted. In 2025 to 2026, 164,835 (97.5%) were granted and 4,160 (2.5%) were not granted. This compares with 2024 to 2025, where 155,690 (97.5%) were granted and 3,975 (2.5%) were not granted.

Applications not completed

At the end of the 2025 to 2026 reporting year, 116,355 applications for DoLS were not completed (2.1% down from 118,850 in 2024 to 2025).

Duration of completed applications

Applications completed within the statutory timeframe of 21 days

Of the 372,145 applications for DoLS that were completed in 2025 to 2026, 157,160 were classed as standard (not urgent). Of these, 22.8% (35,805) were completed within the statutory timeframe of 21 days, up from 21.1% in 2024 to 2025.

Average length of time for a completed application to be completed

Of the 372,145 applications for DoLS that were completed in 2025 to 2026, the average (mean) length of time taken from receiving to completing an application was 117 days. This is down from 126 days in 2024 to 2025.

Data source and methodology

The data used in this publication was collated by DHSC from the DoLS mandatory data collection of local authorities in England. Data was provided by all but one of the 153 local authorities for 2025 to 2026.

More detailed information about data sources and processing can be found in the accompanying background, quality and methodology for these statistics.

Terminology

Deprivation of liberty safeguards

DoLS are a legal framework applying to individuals who lack the mental capacity to consent to the arrangements for their care. Where such care may amount to a ‘deprivation of liberty’ the arrangements are independently assessed to ensure they are in the best interests of the individual concerned. See more information in the accompanying background, quality and methodology document.

Application completed

This is where an application has been completed during the reporting period 1 April to 31 March, irrespective of when it was received. An application is considered to be complete when:

• enough information has been gathered to enable a decision to either grant or not grant the application to take place
• the relevant form has been completed and signed by the relevant person at the local authority

Applications completed after 31 March are considered as incomplete for the reporting year and are therefore categorised as ‘not completed’.

Application not completed

This includes applications received by a council and not completed as at 1 April.

Application outcome

The status of the application on the final day of the reporting period, 31 March.

Application granted

The application has satisfied all 6 parts of the assessment criteria and the decision has been made to grant the application. See more information in the accompanying background, quality and methodology.

Application not granted

The decision has been made to not grant the application for one or more of the following reasons:

• one or more of the assessment criteria have not been satisfied
• there has been a change of circumstances
• the individual has died

Duration of application

The duration of the application as of 31 March of the reporting period, determined by calculating the difference in the number of days between the day the application was received by the council and 31 March. Applications received on 31 March were calculated as 1 day.

Contact

We welcome feedback from our users on how you use our products, how well these products meet your needs and how they could be improved.

For feedback and any further questions, contact asc.statistics@dhsc.gov.uk.

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