GUIDES
Relevant information means the salient facts, options and foreseeable consequences needed for the particular decision, presented in a form the person can use.
Author: Nellie Supports Ltd
Publication Date: 15/05/2026
39 Essex Chambers, Mental Capacity Guidance Note: Carrying out and recording capacity assessments.
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Relevant information means the salient facts, options and foreseeable consequences needed for the particular decision, presented in a form the person can use. The sections below explain the evidence, practical steps and limits of the assessment or process.
Relevant information is the hinge of every capacity assessment: the specific facts a person must be able to understand, retain, use or weigh for the particular decision, including the realistic options and the reasonably foreseeable consequences of each. The courts have defined the relevant information for many recurring decisions, residence, care, contact and finances among them, and they warn against setting the bar too high: it is the salient information, not every detail an expert would know. This guide explains how relevant information is identified, the recurring decision types and the errors that make reports vulnerable.
An assessment can only test whether a person can understand, retain, use or weigh the information that actually matters for the decision. If the wrong information is used, the whole assessment is unreliable. Identifying the relevant information correctly is therefore the first substantive task, and it shapes the questions asked and the conclusion reached.
Under section 3 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005, the information relevant to a decision includes information about the reasonably foreseeable consequences of deciding one way or another, or of failing to make the decision. The courts have treated this as the salient factors a person needs to grasp, not an exhaustive technical brief.
Relevant information differs sharply between decisions. The information needed to decide where to live is not the information needed to make a will, manage finances or consent to treatment. The assessor must work out, for this person and this decision, which factors are genuinely material and which are peripheral, and assess against those.
Relevant information is not limited to abstract facts. It includes the practical, real-world consequences of the decision, such as the effect on the person's care, safety, finances, relationships or living arrangements. Court of Protection judgments have stressed that leaving out these consequences produces an assessment that answers the wrong question.
A person does not need to understand every detail to have capacity. The test is whether they can grasp the salient factors, the points that genuinely bear on the decision. Overloading the assessment with fine detail can set the bar too high and wrongly suggest incapacity, just as omitting key consequences can set it too low.
Using a standard list of relevant information across every case is a common and serious flaw. The same template applied to a residence decision, a financial decision and a will produces assessments that do not fit the actual choices the person faces. Relevant information should be drafted for the case in front of you, not copied across.
For a decision about where to live, relevant information includes the available options, the support each offers and the risks of each. For a gift, it includes the size of the gift relative to the estate and its effect on the person. For treatment, it includes the nature, purpose, benefits and risks of the options. Each list is different.
A defensible assessment sets out, in writing, the specific relevant information identified for the decision and why. It then tests the person against that information and records the result. This makes the reasoning transparent and allows others to see whether the right information was used, which is essential if the assessment is later challenged.
Relevant information is the material a person needs to make a particular decision, including its real-world consequences. Identifying it correctly and recording it explicitly is the difference between an assessment that answers the right question and one that does not. A generic checklist is rarely good enough.
The law does, shaped by the courts for recurring decision types, and the assessor applies it to the person's actual situation. It is not for family members or professionals to inflate the list until the person fails.
No. The person needs the salient points, not expert-level detail. The courts have repeatedly said the bar must not be set higher for people with impairments than for anyone else making the same decision.
The commonest failure is assessing the wrong information: capacity in general rather than the decision in question, or a list of information no ordinary person would be held to. A strong report states the relevant information it used, so any reader can check the bar was set lawfully. Does relevant information change with the decision's complexity? Yes. Selling a house involves more information than closing a savings account, and the relevant information expands accordingly, while always remaining limited to what is salient for that decision.
The related pages below explain connected decisions, evidence requirements and legal processes.
Before seeking a report, write down the exact decision, relevant date, reason for concern and intended use. Gather the documents that explain the real options and any communication needs. Check any required form or court direction, agree the scope and total fee, and clarify how missing evidence or further questions will be handled.
A GOOD PLACE TO START
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