HUMAN rights experts in Scotland have reported that a key safeguard in emergency mental health detentions was followed in fewer than half of cases during the pandemic.

Research by the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland found just over four in 10 emergency detentions between March 1 2020 and February 28 this year were carried out with the consent of a specialist mental health social worker.

The organisation, which is accountable to Scottish government ministers, said that this proportion represents a fall from the five-year average of 51.7 per cent, adding it had warned repeatedly of a lack of specialist consent to detentions in recent years.