Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP)

My Lords, in following two such eloquent contributions, I can be extremely brief. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Tyler, for what is clearly a major piece of work in producing this amendment. I attached my name to it because the creation of a mental health commissioner is such an important issue that it was crucial that there was a demonstration of support that was as wide as possible—a full slate of support here, even in Committee, as I am sure there will be should this come back on Report, unless the Minister says it is a great idea and she is going to go ahead with it right now. I will add one other point of comparison, on something with which I have been a little involved myself: the comparison with the Patient Safety Commissioner. Noble Lords will remember that a case for the Patient Safety Commissioner was made from the then Government Back Benches, by Lady Cumberlege. She spent a couple of years fighting to finally get a Patient Safety Commissioner. We have seen the work that the Patient Safety Commissioner has done since the creation of the post: we have seen some very specific, detailed work on the issues of vaginal mesh and sodium valproate. Digging into the details and supporting a fight to get something done are really something that only these independent commissioner positions can do. Otherwise, very often, it falls to severely underfunded NGOs and perhaps to Members of Parliament who are enlisted in a cause but have many other calls on their time and resources as well. We have discussed again and again how difficult it will be to bring this Bill into effect and, as the noble Baroness, Lady Tyler, said, to address the issues of discrimination and inequality that we know are already there. This is surely an absolutely obvious thing to do to help ensure—as so many noble Lords have been saying today and previously in Committee—that we get this done.