Government Urged to Strengthen Draft Mental Health Bill

The Government s draft Mental Health Bill must be strengthened to address rising numbers detained under current legislation and tackle unacceptable and inexcusable failures on racial inequalities say MPs and Peers

The Joint Committee’s detailed report was published following extensive hearings to scrutinise the draft legislation The Joint Committee, established in July 2022, has examined the extent to which the draft Bill would ensure fewer people were detained against their wishes promote patient choice address racial inequalities and end the inappropriate long-term detention of people with learning disabilities and autistic people under the Act

The Committee supports reform of the 1983 Mental Health Act and the intentions behind the draft Bill It says that the reform process should not end here and needs to continue beyond the draft Bill in the direction of more rights-led legislation that respects patient choice

The Government is urged to publish a comprehensive implementation and workforce plan alongside the Bill with clear actions and milestones There should be a statutory duty to report annually to Parliament on the progress against milestones including the number of detentions length of stay and progress on reducing racial and ethnic inequalities

Chair of the Joint Committee on the draft Mental Health Bill Baroness Buscombe said “We welcome the intention of the Government s draft Bill to bring about long overdue mental health reform We hope Ministers will accept our amendments which strengthen the Bill and deliver workable legislation Ministers must now act swiftly to bring it before Parliament

To drive reform we urge the creation of a new Mental Health Commissioner to monitor the implementation of the Bill and to speak up for patients families and carers

We believe stronger measures are needed to bring about change in particular to tackle racial disparity in the use of the Mental Health Act The failure to date is unacceptable and inexcusable

“The Government should strengthen its proposal on advanced choice and give patients a statutory right to request an advance choice document setting out their preferences for future care and treatment thereby strengthening both patient choice and their voice

The existing shortfall in community care must also be addressed or these reforms risk being derailed with worse outcomes for those that the Bill is intended to help

Key recommendations to Government include:

• Creation of a new statutory Mental Health Commissioner post

• The Principles underpinning the 2018 Review and respect for racial equality should be included in the Bill

Health organisations should appoint a responsible person to collect and monitor data on detentions under the MHA broken down by ethnicity with annual figures published by Government and to implement policies to reduce inequalities

Community Treatment Orders are used disproportionately for black and ethnic minority patients and should be abolished for the majority of patients except those involved in criminal proceedings or under sentence where their continued use should be reviewed

Strengthened duties for Integrated Care Boards and Local Authorities to ensure adequate supply of community services for people with learning disabilities and autistic people to avoid long-term detention

Patients detained or previously detained under the MHA should have a statutory right to request an advance choice document is drawn up