Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust v CG (by their litigation friend, the Official Solicitor) & Anor

Facts

CG is a 36 year old woman with a chronic severe psychiatric illness, principally anorexia nervosa, complicated by emotionally unstable personality disorder and features consistent with complex trauma. She has undergone repeated inpatient treatment since a young age, including 11 admissions to specialist eating disorder units over the last ten years with prolonged detention under the Mental Health Act 1983, during which nasogastric feeding was administered under physical restraint; each attempt at weight restoration was followed by marked escalation in severe self-harm, and no durable recovery was achieved. Her last recorded BMI was about 8.7 and she is at real and imminent risk of death in the short to medium term. Following a multi-disciplinary best interests meeting in March 2026, Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust concluded that it would not seek to compel treatment, since nasogastric feeding under restraint would be futile and harmful and might hasten her death. The Trust issued proceedings in the Court of Protection in April 2026 seeking declarations as to CG's lack of capacity and the lawfulness of not detaining or force-feeding her. An independent second opinion from Dr Paul Robinson supported the clinical team. After the Official Solicitor questioned in her skeleton argument whether proceedings were needed at all, the Trust applied on 18 June 2026 for leave to withdraw.