September 11, 2004: New Draft Mental Health Bill Published

The Government has published a revised draft Mental Health Bill. This Bill will have a significant impact on work with mentally disordered offenders.

It represents the biggest reform of mental health legislation since the 1950s, and will be subject to pre-legislative scrutiny by a parliamentary committee, which will present its report by March 2005. (A draft Bill was published in 2002, and comments received on that draft have been taken into consideration).

The government argues that it will provide improved safeguards for patients and better procedures for treatment to the small minority of people with mental health problems who need to be treated against their will to prevent them from harming themselves. The government also states that it will provide a diversion from prison for non-dangerous offenders with mental health problems and provides better protection to the public from those who are deemed a risk to others, by ensuring they receive the treatment they need.

The new draft Bill has:

• changed the definition of mental disorder to emphasise that it is the effect rather than the underlying cause which is important;
• defined the conditions for compulsion differently, to raise the threshold for the health and safety of patients and to make clear that appropriate treatment must be available for the individual patient;
• meant that a period of hospital assessment will normally be a prerequisite to treatment subject to sanction in the community;
• extended the proposed functions of the Healthcare Commission;
• allowed people to refuse Electro Convulsive Therapy if they retain mental capacity
• increased the maximum sentence for people convicted of ill treatment or neglect of patients

According to Home Office Prisons and Probation Minister Minister Paul Goggins:

"The provisions that enable dangerous and serious offenders to be detained in hospital for mental health treatment will stay in place. The vast majority of people with mental disorders are not a risk to others, but a minority are - and the law obviously needs to recognise this. We will not compromise public safety. If we are to protect the public we must ensure that those with a mental disorder who are a risk to others receive the high quality mental health treatment they need. The Bill will help to achieve this."

"It also enables non-dangerous offenders who do not pose a risk to others to receive mental health treatment under sanction in the community. This means that the offender will receive the mental health treatment he or she needs to reduce the risk of re-offending."

National Director for Mental Health, Louis Appleby, said:

"The criteria for compulsory treatment under the Bill are carefully drafted - to make sure that only people who need compulsory treatment receive it. Mental health services will have a duty to respond to requests for assessment and patients who are treated under the Bill will have to have an individual care plan focused on their individual needs."