Mental Health Bill [HL]

During my time in this Chamber I have learnt one thing—that the noble Lord, Lord Rix, is the worst act to follow because he always has the best lines, and that is my position today. Anyone who spent more than about 30 seconds on the Joint Committee was left in absolutely no doubt as to his commitment over many years to this subject, and his tenacity. All that we could do, strong-minded people though we were, was to emerge from that committee in complete agreement with everything that he said and to be prepared to line up with him. We did that because he is absolutely right—and he is absolutely right in proposing this amendment. Being aggressive or irresponsible is not a reason in itself for people to be subjected to mental health legislation. Because someone has a learning disability and displays those two things it is simply wrong to make them subject to a different degree of judgment from other people. It is important that we support the noble Lord, Lord Rix, because he is right that there is huge scope not only for wrong or lazy diagnosis but for people with learning disabilities being subject to a completely different degree of assessment from other people, which is fundamentally wrong. I remind noble Lords that during the passage of the Mental Capacity Act, I was one of those who argued most strongly that there should be an equality provision in that Act and there should not be discrimination. It is beholden on people such as me who hold that view, which is sometimes quite controversial in its application to some areas of healthcare, that we do so consistently. If we cannot be consistent on such a matter of principle, we should not be here at all. The noble Lord, Lord Rix, is absolutely right in saying that people with learning disabilities have the right to expect the same treatment and regard as anybody else. That has been the thrust of legislation in recent years, not least with the Mental Capacity Act, and it should be the thrust of this legislation too. At a very simple level, having a clause in the Billin which the words ““learning disability”” and ““abnormally aggressive or seriously irresponsible conduct”” come together reinforces some of those stereotypes, about which my noble friend Lord Addington spoke so eloquently in relation to the previous amendment. For all the reasons that the noble Lord, Lord Rix, outlined with better erudition than I ever could, I believe that we should support him.