Neglect (English law)
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In English law, neglect is a term of art, identical to the, now deprecated, expression lack of care and different from the concept of negligence. Its sole function is to qualify a verdict returned at an inquest by finding that it was a factor that contributed to a death.[1]
Master of the Rolls Sir Thomas Bingham defined it in these terms:
Neglect in this context means a gross failure to provide adequate nourishment or liquid, or provide or procure basic medical attention or shelter or warmth for someone in a dependent position (because of youth, age, illness or incarceration) who cannot provide it for himself. Failure to provide medical attention for a dependent person whose physical condition is such as to show that he obviously needs it may amount to neglect. So it may be if it is the dependent person's mental condition which obviously calls for medical attention (as it would, for example, if a mental nurse observed that a patient had a propensity to swallow razor blades and failed to report this propensity to a doctor, in a case where the patient had no intention to cause himself injury but did thereafter swallow razor blades with fatal results). In both cases the crucial consideration will be what the dependent person's condition, whether physical or mental, appeared to be.
– R v. HM Coroner for North Humberside and Scunthorpe, ex parte Jamieson[2]
