Mental Health Bill [HL]

My Lords, I was not going to speak to this amendment until goaded into it by the noble Lord, Lord Soley, who rather implied that he would prefer an unprincipled Bill. I welcome the amendment, despite it being only half the measure I had hoped for. I had hoped we would have it right there on the front page of the Mental Capacity Act. Having failed to get that, however, this is a spot-on compromise. During the passage of the Bill, the tone of the Government’s negotiation has moved more towards giving life to the principles we would like to see enacted, and convincing us that they share them. I hope that that spirit will continue in discussions in the other place, given the concerns raised in the past week that some of our amendments may not be further supported there.