Contribution
My Lords, I too start by thanking the Minister, her officials and her special adviser for their constructive engagement on the Bill. The Bill has been returned to us from the other place without the amendments made in this House. Obviously, I would have preferred it if those amendments had remained in the Bill, but I understand that the Government believe that they are not necessary.
Amendments 1 to 4, and 11, remove the amendment proposed by my noble friend Lady May of Maidenhead and tabled by me and my noble friend Lord Howe on Report, which would have allowed a wider range of people to undertake detention under Sections 2, 3 and 5 of the Mental Health Act. I thank my noble friend Lady May for giving specific examples of why that was called for.
I understand that there were two main concerns with those amendments. First, some were concerned about setting a precedent beyond the Bill for being detained by personnel who are not police officers. Secondly, some of the health professionals who would have been affected by this change felt that they had not been properly consulted. I am therefore grateful to the Minister and her officials for suggesting a consultation on whether these powers could be extended. It is good that we are going way beyond just this and having a wider consultation.
Amendment 6 removes Clause 35 from the Bill. It was inserted after a successful Division on Report and was moved by my noble friend Lord Howe. It was intended to ensure that those who are detained and given treatment for their mental health receive a proper debriefing after their discharge and that the system can learn and not repeat the same mistakes. My noble friend mentioned the experiences of young people who felt that they were not being listened to, but during our meeting with the Minister, she agreed to outline at the Dispatch Box how the Government would ensure that more is done to listen. We welcome the assurances she has given.
Another question we raised was on patients having a right to an advance choice document. We would of course have preferred that to be in the Bill, but we understand that Amendments 7 to 10 are a step in the right direction, and in fact the Government have said that there is not really much difference in practice between the wording in the Bill and the alternative wording that we suggested. Once again, I welcome the assurances, but we will pay close attention to make sure that ICBs and trusts are making people who should have the right to an ACD aware that they do have that right. I think that is something that many noble Lords agree on.
On Amendment 19D from my noble friend Lady Berridge, I understand that she had some concerns, which she was able to share with the Chamber, supported by other noble Lords. One was on the use of “or”, and there is some debate about whether we need “or” in the Bill to imply “or”. I am not a legal expert, but I hope that some assurance can be given there. I also hope that some of the other issues my noble friend mentioned can be resolved in further discussions between her and the department, and possibly either in the code of practice or in specific guidance—but also in discussions with the relevant health professionals who have raised the concerns with her.
One issue that I raised a number of times, and I thank noble Lords from the Lib Dem Benches also for raising it, is racial disparities. We have been speaking about racial disparities for far too long, and for far too long we have been given the answer, “It’s too complicated” or “The data is much more granular than you think”. I welcome the fact that the data will be published more frequently, but I hope that we take that data and make changes based on the evidence in it so that we are not looking at anecdotes or people’s prejudices but are tackling the real problem. For far too long, people of Afro-Caribbean descent have been detained, and no one has really got to the crux of the matter. I know that this is an issue which noble Lords from all Benches agree that we really need to hone in on and tackle.
Given all that, I again thank the Minister, her officials, her special adviser and others for their constructive approach. I also thank all noble Lords from all Benches. Many of us said that it was not a particularly political Bill, but it was an issue that we just wanted to get right. Given that, as the noble Baroness, Lady Tyler, said, this issue does not come up frequently enough and that it might be another 10 or 20 years before we discuss it again, and things move on and we are more aware of issues and understand some of these conditions in more detail, I thank all noble Lords and the Minister for the constructive way in which we have all worked together. Hopefully, we can now ensure that the Bill makes its way on to the statute book.