The
Mental Health Bill completed its passage
through the House of Lords last week with peers defeating the
government on six key areas of the legislation (see
Six Key changes made to the bill by peers).
Now the focus moves to the Commons, where health minister
Rosie Winterton has vowed to overturn the
amendments, claiming peers had "seriously weakened" the
government's plans to protect patients and the public.
Although the opposition parties said they would back the peers'
changes it may prove difficult to garner enough rebel Labour MPs to
block the government.
Mental Health Alliance chair Andy Bell said he hoped enough
Labour MPs would see it as an "issue of conscience not party
politics".
Shadow health minister Tim Loughton said: "The battle is hotting
up and we will be going full pelt to make sure the amendments from
the lords prevail."
The government is expected to offer several compromises in the
Commons, such as including principles protecting people's rights in
the bill's code of practice and improving access to advocates for
detained patients.
Winterton's criticisms of the Lords amendments drew a sharp
response from Liberal Democrat peer Lord Carlile, who chaired the
scrutiny committee that reviewed the 2004 draft Mental Health
Bill.
He said: "If she had listened to the debates, she would have
heard evidence from cross-party peers, with wide-ranging
professional expertise, that nothing in the bill will lead to the
prevention of a single murder."
Six key
changes made to the bill by peers
(
back)
● Compulsory community treatment would be restricted to patients
who would otherwise be in and out of hospital, rather than anyone
who had been sectioned.
● Detained children would be placed in age-appropriate
accommodation.
● A person could only be detained if the treatment would be "likely
to alleviate or prevent a deterioration in his condition", rather
than when "appropriate treatment" was available, as the government
proposed.
● People could not be sectioned solely on the basis of their
substance misuse, sexual orientation or cultural beliefs.
● A detention renewal must be agreed by a medical practitioner and
a responsible clinician, rather than just a responsible clinician,
such as a nurse.
● People could not be sectioned unless they had impaired ability to
make decisions about their treatment.
Further
information
Mental Health
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Contact the author
Simeon Brody