Mental Health Bill – Joint Committee on Human Rights call for evidence

The Joint Committee on Human Rights is undertaking scrutiny of the Mental Health Bill to assess its compatibility with international and domestic human rights standards.  The Committee has a call for evidence closing on 24 January 2025.

For more on the Mental Health Bill, see here.

I set out below the issues the Committee wants to receive views on:

1. The Bill will remove the power for autistic people and people with learning disabilities to be detained under section 3 of the Mental Health Act on the basis of their autism or learning disability. However, no equivalent changes are made for autistic people and people with learning disabilities under Part 3 of the Act (so-called ‘forensic’ patients). Does this differential treatment raise any concerns under Article 14 ECHR when read with Article 5 or Article 8 ECHR?

2. The Bill will allow conditions amounting to a deprivation of liberty to be applied as part of a conditional discharge (see Clause 33).

a. Are there sufficient safeguards for the new deprivation of liberty conditions to be compatible with Article 5 ECHR?

b. The Bill will allow these deprivation of liberty conditions to be applied retrospectively, meaning that a patient who is already conditionally discharged could be made subject to them. Does this raise any human rights concerns, particularly under Article 5 ECHR?

3. The Mental Health Act 1983 and the Mental Capacity Act 2005 can both be applicable to the detention and treatment of patients with mental health conditions. Does the interaction between the two Acts raise any human rights concerns? In particular, are there any concerns that the law is insufficiently clear to fulfil the “prescribed by law” criteria in Article 5 ECHR, or to raise discrimination concerns under Article 14 ECHR?

4. Other than the issues identified in the above questions, does the Bill raise any other issues under the ECHR or the Human Rights Act 1998?

5. The UK is a party to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Does the Bill raise any concerns regarding the UK’s compliance with this convention?

6. The Bill has provisions which would apply to children as well as adults. The UK is a party to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Does the Bill raise any concerns regarding the UK’s compliance with this convention?

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