Mental Health Bill [HL]

Baroness Blake of Leeds Excerpts

Report stage
Wednesday 2nd April 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness in Waiting/Government Whip (Baroness Blake of Leeds) (Lab)]

My Lords, it gives me enormous pleasure to respond to my noble friend Lady Keeley’s amendment. I had not joined the team during Committee, so I was not present at the meeting that everyone has described, but I have read the verbatim report and I express my thanks for the sincerity and the careful, thoughtful way that the arguments have been put forward by all noble Members who took part and those who have spoken today.

I am, of course, aware of the wider strong support for this issue. I am very grateful for the references to the different organisations that have engaged in this. I am also struck by the comments from the noble Baroness, Lady Barker, about reference to other professionals—all those unsung heroes who do not get the recognition they deserve. I think that we all join together to express our gratitude.

I express my condolences to the family of Paul Sammut. As we have discussed, his case has helped bring this to our attention. We recognise the concern around unequal coverage and rights to redress under the Human Rights Act, and the court judgment has highlighted the need to clarify the position of private mental health and care providers under the Human Rights Act when providing mental health-related care arranged and paid for by the NHS and local authorities.

Tonight, I commit that we will return to this issue when the Bill goes to the other place. There, we can have proper discussion and further consideration of some of the issues raised. My noble friend Lady Keeley has raised the issue of the wider implications of this, and I am particularly conscious of the references to children’s services. It is an issue that we have, of course, been discussing with the DfE, which has responsibilities to look at the ramifications for it.

We need to keep working on this, recognising the gap that my noble friend and others have raised in this place, but committing to taking it forward as part of the legislative process. I know that my noble friend the Minister has put a lot of time into this and is thankful for the input. She has graciously offered further meetings on this point as we move forward in the discussions and we look forward to the outcomes in due course.

[Baroness Keeley (Lab)]

My Lords, I am very pleased to hear that Ministers will pick up this issue and hopefully take action to close this gap in human rights protection during the Bill’s passage in the other place. I thank noble Lords, and noble and learned Lords, for their support for this amendment in Committee and today. It has been important that we have that support, as my noble friend Lady Chakrabarti said. I want to thank the Minister. She has done a huge amount of work with us on this amendment and I thank her and my noble friend Lady Blake for agreeing to take action on this important issue of human rights protection. That said, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.