Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to reform the Mental Health Act 1983 to ensure that people have an automatic right to (a) assessment and (b) treatment.

The Mental Health Bill will deliver the Government’s commitment to modernise the Mental Health Act 1983. It will give patients enhanced rights and support, whilst maintaining the right balance to ensure that people get the treatment they need when necessary for their own protection, or that of others.

However, we recognise the long-standing gap between demand and supply for mental health treatment, which is why we will fix the broken system to ensure we give mental health the same attention and focus as physical health and that people can be confident of accessing high quality mental health support when they need it. The Mental Health Bill will be published when Parliamentary time allows.