Committee warns on mental health legislation
Draft legislation setting out reforms to mental health services would erode civil liberties, a parliamentary committee is warning.
The committee, comprising MPs and peers, says the draft Mental Health Bill makes it too easy to force people into compulsory treatment.
Their report says the legislation overplays the need to protect the public from a minority of dangerous mentally ill people who pose a threat to them, at the expense of the majority who pose no risk.
Lord Carlile of Berriew, chairman of the Joint Committee on the Draft Mental Health Bill, described the legislation as “fundamentally flawed”.
Mental health services have long been a source of concern to the public, with a number of high profile cases where dangerous patients were released back into the community.
The committee’s report comes just a day after John Barrett, a paranoid schizophrenic, was jailed for life for the killing of former banker Denis Finnegan in a knife attack in Richmond Park.
Under the draft bill, published last year, people with serious personality disorders who had committed no offence could be detained indefinitely “for the protection of other persons”.
But the committee is concerned that this could lead to the bill being used as a means of social control – equivalent to a mental health ASBO – to treat those who are a “nuisance” but do not pose significant risk to the public.
MPs and peers want to see the legislation significantly tightened so it cannot be used inappropriately.
Lord Carlile said: “This is an important reminder to the Government that the bill is fundamentally flawed. It is too heavily focused on compulsion and currently there are neither the financial resources nor the workforce to implement it.
“Far too many people could be forced into treatment unnecessarily.”
He pointed out that people could be detained even though the treatment would not help their condition; and could be detained compulsorily even if they were perfectly capable of making their own decisions.
“This is well beyond what is required and the committee believes that Ministers should consider redrafting significant sections of the bill,” he added.
Dr Tony Zigmond, vice president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists welcomed the committee’s report. He said: “If adopted, the college believes that these recommendations will significantly enhance mental health legislation and the mental health services required to support them.”
