Mental health tsar indicates government to specify in more detail conditions under which people can be detained under mental health law

January 12, 2004

The mental health tsar has indicated that the government has taken on board a key concern about planned new law for detaining people with mental health problems.

In an interview with the Times Higher Education Supplement, Professor Louis Appleby hinted that a revised draft mental health bill will outline more specifically the conditions under which people can be treated by force.

This is in response to fierce criticism of the 2002 draft mental health bill, the biggest planned shake up of mental health law since 1983.

Critics fear that, when combined, the definition of mental disorder and conditions for detention are so broad in the draft bill this would lead to more people being treated by force by the mental health services. Critics say this would turn psychiatrists into jailers as much as doctors.

Prof Appleby, although not revealing details, has indicated modifications will be made to the conditions that must be met for detention. The conditions in the draft bill broadly state a person must be a danger to themselves or others.

Prof Appleby, the national director for mental health, said: "My position is that we should specify in more detail the conditions under which compulsion can be used. The problem is not with a broad definition. The problem is the combination of the definition and the conditions."

"There is no dark government intent behind the bill - it just did not feel in the end that we had got the right message about the criteria under which compulsion powers might be used."

Health minister Rosie Winterton has announced that a revised draft mental health bill is to be "scrutinised" later this year by a parliamentary committee which would then report to the government.

See also:
Nov 26, 2003: Revised draft mental health bill to be scrutinised in parliament - ministers promise a code of conduct on how proposed new mental health law should be applied
July 28, 2003: Prof Appleby promises that changes to the draft mental health bill will meet the approval of psychiatrists and other professionals - the national director for mental health also hints that broader criteria for detention will be included in the bill. As for the new health minister Rosie Winterton...she claims the bill will be 'patient-centred'

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