Elderly people in private care homes will receive new protection from degrading treatment with a change to the law to give them legal redress against unscrupulous managers.

Couples denied the right to stay together in homes can challenge decisions under the Human Rights Act 1998 which protects the right to a family life.

The move by health and justice ministers came after a law lords ruling which determined that the Human Rights Act would not apply to an 83-year-old woman with Alzheimer’s who was thrown out of her private care home as the act applied only to public care homes.

Ministers tabled an amendment to the Health and Social Care Bill, which is expected to be passed by parliament, to extend the act to any independent sector care home that provides accommodation, nursing or personal care on behalf of a local authority.

Ivan Lewis, the health minister, said: “Everyone who has an elderly parent or grandparent will want to know we are doing everything to protect vulnerable older people from ill-treatment.”

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