Mental Health Bill [HL]

Lord Davies of Brixton Excerpts

Report stage
Monday 31st March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Tyler of Enfield (LD)]

My Lords, briefly, I want to make a couple of contributions to the debate. In so doing, I reflect on that fact that we have not spent much time talking about the criminal justice side of this Bill. I wonder why that is.

On the amendment tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Bradley, it makes eminent sense to ensure that there is an accountable person or body responsible for ensuring that transfers to hospital occur within 28 days. I have a simple view of the world: if you want to make sure that some things get done, you need to ensure that someone is in charge and that that person is held to account. As the Minister knows, I am quite keen on responsible people, particularly in relation to this Bill, to ensure that things get done—hence, I support the amendment.

I was very interested in the arguments put forward by the noble Baroness, Lady Fox, for her amendment, focusing on ensuring that prisoners treated for a mental disorder have access to continued mental health treatment once they are back in the community. That is such common sense and such an obvious thing to do, if we are to stop repeat admissions and detentions and the whole thing becoming a revolving door. We all know that it is not easy in the community at the best of times to get access to the treatment that you need, particularly mental health treatment. It is particularly difficult for people who have recently been released from detention. Further, we all know the episodic nature of many mental health conditions, so this amendment is just good common sense.

[Lord Davies of Brixton (Lab)]

I want to express my support for the amendment from my noble friend Lord Bradley, because in Committee I had a parallel amendment that dealt with a similar issue. I very much agree with what the noble Baroness, Lady Tyler of Enfield, said about locating specific responsibility for getting people through the system. In this area, time is absolutely of the essence to avoid crises and worsening mental health states. So I strongly support the thought behind my noble friend’s amendment, and I hope the Minister can help us by showing that the problem is understood and that the Government see it as a priority to resolve the problems that undoubtedly occur at present.

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

My Lords, I will speak briefly to Amendments 38 and 40. One of the things about being a politician is that when you say things, you cannot hide. When the noble Lord, Lord Bradley, told me he was about to quote me in his contribution, I thought, “Oh no, what have I said now?”, so I am grateful to him for warning me and not being too harsh on me. As other noble Lords have said, this is an eminently sensible amendment, and I hope we will get a positive response from the Minister.