Mental Health

Debate between Jeremy Corbyn and Steve Reed

Thursday 16th May 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Reed]

I thank the Minister for his intervention. I am grateful for his generous offer, which I will certainly take up.

[Jeremy Corbyn]

I compliment my friend on an excellent speech. Does he agree that the problem of representation of people both in initial assessments and when they are placed in long-stay mental health institutions often means that many poorer young black men never get any representation whatever and end up being completely institutionalised as a result, leading to those ludicrously higher statistics for black and ethnic minority people, who are no more prone to mental health problems than anyone else in society?

[Mr Reed]

I thank my hon. Friend for that contribution. There are a range of concerns about the treatment of black people in the mental health system that need to be tackled to reassure that community.

I believe other Members in the House will agree that this cannot be allowed to go on. I urge Ministers to use their offices to persuade the IPCC, the CPS and the Metropolitan police to work together to obtain a quashing order against the IPCC’s original decision so that a criminal investigation into the Seni Lewis case can go ahead, followed by a full public inquest. Instead of apparently washing their hands of the concerns that this matter raises, Ministers should acknowledge the need for a national strategy on policing within mental health settings.

The organisation Inquest points out that it is an unacceptable anomaly that there is no independent body charged with investigating deaths in the mental health service, as there is for deaths in police custody. As a result of that anomaly, reviews are conducted internally, they may not involve the family affected, and there is no collation or joining up of learning across the service nationally. After this case and other cases like it, the community deserves the reassurance of an independent inquiry into the treatment of black people in the mental health service.

Two years and eight months after their son’s death, the Lewis family still do not know how or why he died. The public hearings scheduled for July 2012 and then March 2013 were both delayed without explanation. Seni Lewis deserves justice. The Lewis family deserve justice and they must not be kept waiting any longer.