Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Government's forthcoming reform of the Mental Health Act, if he will make it his policy to (a) ensure that legislative proposals address the concerns of respondents to the public consultation to the Mental Health Act White Paper about how the reforms will serve the needs of children and young people and (b) work closely with stakeholders to test and develop policy proposals concerning children and young people as part of a pre-legislative scrutiny process prior to the introduction of legislative proposals to Parliament.

The Government will publish a draft Mental Health Bill shortly. Pre-legislative scrutiny of the draft Bill will then be a matter for Parliament.

The Government consulted on the proposals for legislation made by the Independent Review of the Mental Health Act in 2018 and through the ‘Reforming the Mental Health Act’ white paper, which received over 1,700 responses. We have also worked with charities to gather the views of people, including children and young people, who were either in inpatient services or had lived experience of the Act. The development of the draft Bill has been informed by these consultations.