Mental Health Bill must tackle ‘unacceptable’ racial inequalities, MPs and peers warn

Conservative peer Baroness Buscombe urges government to address “unacceptable” racial disparities in mental health legislation

(PA)

The government’s draft Mental Health Bill must be strengthened to address “unacceptable” racial inequalities, a group of cross-party politicians has said.

A joint committee charged with scrutinising the draft legislation will publish a detailed report on Thursday following extensive hearings to determine how effective it will be.

Launched in July, the cross-party group examined the extent to which the draft bill would ensure fewer people were detained against their wishes, address racial inequalities and end the inappropriate long-term detention of people with learning disabilities and autistic people under the Act.

It came immediately after the government published a white paper outlining its plans to reform the 1983 Mental Health Act in June.

Baroness Buscombe, chair of the joint committee on the draft Mental Health Bill, said members welcomed the reform proposed under the draft bill and ministers must now act swiftly to bring it before Parliament.

“To drive reform, we urge the creation of a new Mental Health Commissioner to monitor the implementation of the bill and to speak up for patients, families and carers.

“We believe stronger measures are needed to bring about change, in particular to tackle racial disparity in the use of the Mental Health Act. The failure to date is unacceptable and inexcusable.”

“The government should strengthen its proposal on advanced choice and give patients a statutory right to request an advance choice document setting out their preferences for future care and treatment, thereby strengthening both patient choice and their voice.”

Black people are four times more likely than white people to be detained under the legislation and they are placed under Community Treatment Orders eight times more frequently than white people.

Responding to the government’s white paper in June, Mind the charity said reforms to the act were welcome but “need scrutiny”, pointing out the need for racial disparities to be addressed.

Today, a spokesperson from the charity told The Independent: “In its current form, the Mental Health Act has enabled shameful, racist treatment of people from minority ethnic backgrounds, particularly Black people, who are nearly five times more likely to be sectioned.

“The committee’s report proposes many positive interventions aimed at eradicating racism in mental health services, including the introduction of a responsible person to collect and monitor data on ethnicity.

“Alongside our partners Race on the Agenda, Mind will continue to hold the UK government to account on its anti-racist commitments.”

The committee says that the reform process should not end here and needs to continue beyond the draft Bill in the direction of more rights-led legislation that respects patient choice.

Ministers are also being urged to publish a plan alongside the bill on how it will implement it with clear actions and milestones.

Committees are calling on the government to introduce a statutory duty to report annually to Parliament on the progress against those milestones, including the number of detentions, length of stay and progress on reducing racial and ethnic inequalities.

“The existing shortfall in community care must also be addressed or these reforms risk being derailed, with worse outcomes for those that the bill is intended to help,” Baroness Buscome added.