Mental Health Bill [HL]

My Lords, I thank the noble Earl, Lord Howe, for his kind remarks, which I very much appreciate. Having debated—I am not sure whether ““shadowed”” is the word—with him for four years, and now a further five months, I must say that he has made a really fine contribution to your Lordships’ House. He certainly kept me on my mettle as a Health Minister with the intellectual robustness with which he brings arguments to your Lordships’ House. I pay tribute to him for that and for the service that he gives to the whole House. The noble Earl commented on the Bill as a whole and talked about two different perspectives; I want to respond. Coming late to this, noble Lords will remember that I made a Statement in, I think, 2001 announcing that the Government were to bring forward legislation. Since then, there has been considerable argument and debate. Some of the concerns that have been expressed about the Bill very much reflect the debate around the original discussions, going back to the beginning of this decade. I do not disagree with the noble Earl, Lord Howe, one iota about the importance of respect for patients or that compulsion is very much a last resort. The argument that we still have is that he implies that compulsion has become easier under this legislation, but I do not agree. I believe that the Act contains very strong safeguards. I accept that within the context of the Act, the question is: how well do professionals operate in dealing with individual patients? That surely brings us together in terms of work on the code. I fully accept the challenge of the noble Baroness, Lady Barker, of wishing to ensure that Members of your Lordships’ House are able to contribute to draft regulations in future. We must come together again and ensure that the legislation works to the best interests of patients and the public. I assure noble Lords that the Government wish to work very warmly with all stakeholders to, in a sense, put aside some of the disagreements to ensure that the legislation is good and, above all, that there are good services for people with mental illness in this country; we all want that. On Question, Motion agreed to. 3: Page 3, line 13, leave out from ““is”” to end of line 14 and insert ““appropriate in his case, taking into account the nature and degree of the mental disorder and all other circumstances of his case.””