Mental Health Bill [HL]

My Lords, the noble Lord tempts me down paths where I do not wish to go. He posed a specific question on a potential action by a practitioner. I do not believe that I am in, or ought to be in, a position to respond to that. The answer to his question is no, as evidenced by the case of Munjaz and the issue of being non-judicial. On the code, I can only repeat what I said about the status. Our understanding is that the code gives practitioners legitimate scope for departure when the individual circumstances of the case make departure appropriate. But decision makers must have cogent reason for any departure, which could be scrutinised carefully by the courts. The status of the code was clarified in the House of Lords ruling on the case of Colonel Munjaz. The code is guidance to which great weight must be given and from which hospitals should depart only where they have cogent reasons for doing so. I do not think that I can add any more on that.