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Home secretary David Blunkett has insisted the government should not concede on its proposal to remove the concept of treatability as set out in the draft mental health bill, writes Katie Leason.

Under the current mental health act, people suffering from a mental disorder have to be expected to benefit from treatment in order to be detained. But under the proposals suggested in the draft bill, this would no longer be the case.

The proposal to remove the treatability concept has provoked fierce criticism around fears that an individual with a personality disorder could be detained indefinitely even if they had not committed a crime.

Speaking at the Zito Trust conference, held earlier this week to mark the tenth anniversary of the death of Jonathan Zito who was killed by a man diagnosed as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, Blunkett said that the government “cannot give way on the central issue of treatability”.

He described it as “not acceptable” that the present treatability test meant that “psychopaths” avoided detention and stayed in the community if they were not expected to benefit from treatment.

“Where people pose a threat to others and themselves there must be treatment,” said Blunkett. “The debate isn’t about mass compulsion. It’s about the balance between public interest and individual interest”.

But Blunkett insisted that Alan Milburn and his colleagues were “prepared to listen and respond” to the consultation responses and reflect on “what might be necessary” to reach a consensus.