Mental Health Bill [HL]

Lord Davies of Brixton Excerpts

Report stage
Monday 31st March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

My Lords, these amendments in my name and that of my noble friend Lord Howe are really amendments from my noble friend Lady May, who unfortunately cannot be in her place today. As my noble friend told the House in Committee, when she was Home Secretary, a recurring concern raised by police officers was being called out to situations where they were expected to determine whether someone was at the point of crisis and what should happen to that individual. As we know, that usually meant taking the individual to a police cell as a place of safety—an issue that is addressed in other parts of the Bill. But police officers continue to be concerned that they are asked to deal with something for which they have no, or insufficient, training or knowledge.

As my noble friend reminded the House, a police presence is also often not good for the individual, as not only is that individual not being given the healthcare support they need, but the presence of an officer in uniform coming to deal with them could exacerbate their mental health situation. Even if the police officer is able to get somebody to a hospital, they might still be required to sit with an individual to make sure they do not harm themselves or others. My noble friend Lady May cited the Metropolitan Police’s evidence to the Joint Committee on the draft Bill, where it gave an example of a patient in A&E who was required to be guarded by eight Metropolitan Police officers over 29 hours to prevent them being a high-risk missing person.

In its letter to the current Secretary of State, the National Police Chiefs’ Council was concerned that the law as it currently stands

“arguably views mental health through the lens of crime and policing related risk, which raises … issues including disproportionality in the criminal justice system, discrimination, adverse outcomes for people suffering with poor mental health as well as increasing stigma attached to mental health”.

I make it clear that, although this amendment removes the statutory demand for the police to be the primary responders to incidents of mental health where there is an immediate risk to life or serious injury, the police will still have a role to play.

The amendments specify that the authorised person attending an individual should be

“trained and equipped to carry out detentions”

and should not be

“put at unnecessary risk by carrying out those functions”.

This is in line with the College of Policing’s 2019 mental health snapshot, which found that almost 95% of calls that police attend that are flagged as a mental health response do not require a police response.

The Minister will be aware that, in the joint Home Office and Department of Health review and survey of Sections 135 and 136 powers, 68% of respondents agreed that all or part of Sections 135 and 136 powers should be extended so that healthcare professionals could use them, provided that they were not putting themselves at risk. Paramedics in particular supported a change, with more than 90% agreeing and more than 60% strongly agreeing.

However, this is not just about the interests of the police and healthcare professionals. More importantly, we need to focus on the individual at the point of mental health crisis. They deserve the right response, the right care and the right person.

I note that the Minister, in our conversations—I appreciate her giving forewarning of this—discussed how the amendment as it stands appears to give the police more powers. I discussed that with my noble friend Lady May before I came to the Chamber, and she was surprised at this and said that it was somewhat disappointing, given the constructive meetings that the Minister and my noble friend have had, and given that the Metropolitan Police said that they were supportive of this move when my noble friend met representatives last year.

There is clearly a difference of opinion here, and we appreciate that we need to find a way forward. I know that my noble friend Lady May is open to discussions with the Minister to ensure that the principle behind these amendments is met. Could the Minister give a guarantee to meet my noble friend and that, following these discussions back and forth, she will be able to bring back an amendment at Third Reading?

The fundamental principle remains unchanged: the role of police in detentions under the Mental Health Act must be reduced, and it must be reduced for the patients’ and the workers’ benefit. If the Government can accept the principle but not necessarily the precise wording, I hope that the Minister will be able to give the assurances that I and my noble friend Lady May have asked for. I am afraid that, if the Minister cannot give the assurance that she can bring forward an amendment at Third Reading, having had discussions with my noble friend Lady May, we will have to test the opinion of the House. I hope that the Minister can help to find a constructive way forward with my noble friend.

[Lord Davies of Brixton (Lab)]

I am extremely pleased that the noble Lord, Lord Kamall, has moved his amendment for the Opposition. I will not be voting for it, but I am pleased that it has been moved because in Committee I moved amendments along the same lines.

I know that my noble friend the Minister agrees with the suggestion that there is a challenge here for the Government—she told me so. This issue is not going to go away, and it would be a constructive way forward for there to be a meeting—I would ask to be included in any such meeting. We are clear about where we want to get to, and that the appropriate phrase is “right care, right person”. I do not think that that is currently being delivered, so something needs to be done. I hope that we can move to a better system, in a constructive way.

[Baroness Barker (LD)]

My Lords, like the noble Lord, Lord Davies of Brixton, I find myself in exactly the same place. We all know why the police have said that they are not the appropriate people to be first responders when somebody is having a mental health crisis and presenting a danger either to other people or to themselves. We also know that not putting anything in place, or not putting the right people in place, means that somebody having a crisis will not necessarily be seen by an appropriate person.

A number of us have looked at this and talked to people in the field, and we think that what will happen is that there will be a response from somebody on the front line in the National Health Service, either in an A&E department—because that is where a lot of people will go—or, more likely, from an ambulance. That will put the ambulance service under even greater strain and pressure than it is under now.

It is the hope of those of us who have been involved in the discussions so far—and the intent, I think, of the noble Baroness, Lady May, who is the prime mover behind this—that we do not do that. We should not wait until there is a terrible incident in which somebody is badly harmed; we must try to foresee that situation.

I suspect that, around the country, since the police have taken the decision that they have, front-line health services have had to come up with new ways of responding. The issue has not gone away; people are still going to have mental health crises in which they are a danger to themselves or seem to present a danger to others.

I propose that we follow the suggestion from the noble Lord, Lord Kamall, that there be further discussion on this—preferably with people from mental health organisations and from different parts of the NHS, as well as the police force—to see whether we can come up with something that will plug a very obvious gap.

As I have said before during the passage of this Bill, this is the last chance for the next 10 to 15 years to pass legislation on this subject. We need to behave diligently, take appropriate action now and not wait to rue the day in the future.