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Campaigners have criticised the government's decision to carry out its own race impact assessment on the draft Mental Health Bill.

The Department of Health plans to conduct the assessment before the bill is presented to parliament and said it would involve stakeholders from ethnic minorities.

But the Mental Health Alliance, a coalition of 60 organisations opposed to measures in the bill, believes the assessment should be done independently.

"Something independent has the complete hallmark of being done outside government," an alliance spokesperson said.

"But if it is going to be done by the department then it has to be much more than just consultation. It has to make sure that people are involved in designing the assessment and the results must be made public.
"We need to be able to see what is concluded and what has been changed in the bill as a result."
Professionals and service users fear the proposed legislation will lead to more compulsory treatment and believe people from ethnic minorities will suffer most.

Research has shown that the Mental Health Act 1983 is not implemented equally, and black people in the UK are at least three times more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia than others.

The Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health, a member of the alliance, believes the bill will be applied more harshly because it relies on notions such as "substantial risk" and has no specific measures to promote race equality.

It also says the bill has many connections with the criminal justice system, where black people are also over-represented.

Last week, new Metropolitan Police commissioner Ian Blair joined the debate by suggesting an early-warning system with details about mentally ill patients who posed a risk to the public could be developed.

"Clearly, something has not gone right because we have had a series of cases in which people have been murdered by offenders with psychiatric problems," he said.