Government must do more to reform mental health law

While the Mental Health Bill marks a positive step towards mental health reform, the government must support new legislation with more funding, more clarity and more safeguards, said the Law Society of England and Wales.

Commenting on the Mental Health Bill, which had its second reading in parliament this week,* Richard Atkinson, president of the Law Society, said:

“Mental health legislation must be reformed urgently, as patients are currently robbed of a say and choice in their own care.

“We are pleased the Mental Health Bill’s main aims are to ensure that compulsory detention and treatment are not used inappropriately.

“The Bill proposes that treatment cannot be forcibly given if the patient refuses it in advance, unless there is a ‘compelling reason’ to do so. While we welcome this proposal, greater clarity is needed on how this reason will be determined in practice.

“We support the Bill providing patients with greater access to the Mental Health Tribunal, however, we also recognise that this will add extra pressure to the legal system. We urge the government to increase resources for the tribunal, so that the system delivers justice in a timely manner.

“The Bill protects people with learning disabilities or autistic people from being detained inappropriately, but this must be extended to all types of hospital detention.** We also ask for further consideration of how the Bill’s provisions would apply to children and young people in practice.***

“For the Bill to achieve its aims, it must be supported by sufficient funding, clarity and safeguards. This would ensure that mental health patients have access to justice, as well as the dignity and respect they deserve.

“We will continue to scrutinise the new Bill and ensure it provides patients with enough involvement and support in decisions about their care.”

Notes to editors

• * Read more about the Mental Health Bill here.
• ** While the Bill will prevent people with learning disabilities or autism from being detained for these conditions alone, it must also ensure they are not detained in hospital under different, and potentially inappropriate, legal frameworks, such as the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards system under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 which provides only limited safeguards.
• *** For example, it is unclear how the powerful new ‘nominated person’ role would interact with parental responsibility, or how it would work for a child who is in local authority care.

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