Member

More than 2,000 people were still in in-patient units in February. Progress has been slow and key targets to get people out of hospital have been missed. With only a 29% decrease in the number of in-patients over the past 10 years and a wide variation in progress across the country, provisions in this Bill could make a real difference, ending the inappropriate detention of people with a learning disability and autistic people. However, campaigners and people with lived experience have serious concerns—I share them—that, without a plan to develop sufficient services, the pessimist’s fears will be proved correct. The key point here is that people with a learning disability and autistic people will be treated the same way as any other citizens under the future Act; they will no longer be detained for treatment under Section 3 of the Mental Health Act when they do not also have a coexisting mental illness. That is right, is it not? However, this equalisation switches on only when His Majesty’s Government judge that sufficient community support is in place.