Children and Adoption Bill [HL]

I should like to emphasise one word in Section 11A(6)(a); that is, ““required””. The Bill seems to suggest that no individual may be forced into these things. The noble Baroness rightly emphasised the voluntary submission to assessment, and I have no quarrel with that, but we are in quite dangerous territory if we say that people may be forced into having medical treatment of any kind. That is a Rubicon which we in this country have never crossed. The current buzzwords are ““patient choice””. To force someone to undergo any form of treatment would be a very radical departure from the rights and traditions that citizens in this country have enjoyed up to now.