Mental Health Resources

The information and links to third party resources on this page are provided for training and education purposes only. Advice from a suitably qualified and experienced lawyer should be sought in relation to individual cases.

Legislation & Codes of Practice

England and Wales

IMPORTANT UPDATE:

England and Wales

Mental Health Bill 2025 (England & Wales)

The Bill (drafted under the new government) seeks to overhaul the long-standing Mental Health Act 1983, which governs detention and compulsory treatment for mental illness.

Among the proposed reforms: new safeguards, greater patient choice and participation, statutory care plans for detained patients, advance-choice documents (allowing patients to outline their treatment preferences), and stricter limits on detention for people with autism or learning disabilities (unless there is a co-occurring serious mental health condition).

The reforms aim to promote dignity, consent, and rights-based care.

This Bill could substantially change how mental health care is governed — affecting decisions on detention, treatment, and patient rights, which is highly relevant for mental capacity, best-interests decision-making.

This Bill started in the House of Lords and has passed through the House of Commons. The House of Lords are scheduled to consider final amendments to the Bill on 8th December before it goes forward for Royal Assent, so passing into law.

The 1983 Act is the legislation that currently regulates the compulsory detention and treatment of people with a mental disorder. The Government has said the purpose of the bill is to amend the “outdated” 1983 Act, by implementing many of the recommendations of an independent review of the Mental Health Act in 2018. The Government has said the bill would give more autonomy and voice to those with mental health conditions and address the disproportionate number of Black, Asian and minority ethnic people who are sectioned under the 1983 Act.

Changes proposed in the bill include:

Detention/compulsory treatment only when necessary + more frequent review & appeals

The Bill explicitly aims to “tighten the detention criteria … and provide for more frequent reviews and appeals of both detentions and treatment.

The Bill also elevates the requirement for a “care and treatment plan” for detained patients, strengthens patient involvement, expands rights to advocacy/nominated persons, and replaces the “nearest relative” default with a person chosen by the patient — all designed to ensure detention/treatment is more justified and subject to oversight.

Limiting length of detention for people with autism or a learning disability

The Bill removes “autism and learning disability” from the default list of conditions that justify long-term hospital detention under Section 3 (treatment). Under the revised Bill, civil detentions under Section 3 for those with autism or learning disability are only permissible if there is a co-occurring mental disorder that meets the usual detention criteria.

For assessment under Section 2 (i.e. short-term admission for diagnosis/assessment), the Bill limits detention for autistic people and people with learning disabilities to a maximum 28 days.

The Bill also places on commissioners (Integrated Care Boards / local authorities) a duty to maintain a register of people with autism or learning disability at risk of detention, and to ensure community support is available — reflecting the aim to reduce reliance on hospital detentions.

Removal of police stations and prisons as “places of safety”

The current Bill text removes police stations and prisons from the list of designated “places of safety” under the 1983 Act for people detained under sections dealing with mental health crisis (e.g. s. 135/136) or being transported to hospital.

That change remains in the Bill as of the November 2025 “ping-pong” stage (when Lords and Commons exchanged amendments).

The Bill also introduces a 28-day time-limit for transfer from prisons / other detention facilities to hospital for criminal justice patients needing mental health treatment.

The Bill is similar (but not identical) to a draft Mental Health Bill published in 2022 by the previous Conservative Government. That bill was subject to pre-legislative scrutiny by a joint committee, which published its report in January 2023. The previous Government responded to the joint committee’s recommendations in March 2024, but the draft bill was not introduced in Parliament before the 2024 general election.

The Bill will extend to England and Wales only (apart from the general clauses at the end of the Bill, which extend UK-wide).

More information and resources will be added once available and once the Bill becomes law.

The Mental Health Act 1983 is an Act of the UK Parliament that applies in England and Wales. It provides the legal framework for the care and treatment of individuals with a mental impairment and the management of their property.

Mental Health Act 1983 : Code of Practice

Mental Health Act 1983: Code of Practice (Easy Read Version)

Mental Capacity (Amendment) Act 2019 applies in England and Wales and is an Act to amend provisions of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 relating to depriving people aged 16 and above of their liberty, when they lack capacity to consent.  The Act came into force in May 2019 and creates Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS), to replace existing Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards.  Introduction of the new LPS has been delayed, due to COVID-19, until April 2022.

Mental Health Units (Use of Force) Act 2018 applies in England and Wales and makes provision for the oversight and management of the appropriate use of force towards people in mental health units and similar institutions, including provision about the use of body cameras by police officers in the course of duties in relation to people in mental health units.

Mental Health Units (Use of Force) Act 2018: statutory guidance for NHS organisations in England, and police forces in England and Wales 7 December 2021

Summary of key points

EASY READ Version

The Westminster Government is currently considering whether to introduce a draft Mental Health Bill modernising mental health law.

The draft Bill follows Professor Sir Simon Wessely’s Independent Report – Modernising the Mental Health Act – final report from the independent review, 6 December 2018 into the implementation of the Mental Health Act 1983 (MHA).

Professor Wessely is the Regius Professor of Psychiatry, Kings College, London, appointed by then Prime Minister Theresa May. The Review was tasked with reviewing the legislation amid concerns at the rising and disproportionate rates of detention under the Act, including the disproportionate number of people from black and minority ethnicities detained, and processes that are incompatible with modern mental health systems. It sets out recommendations for government on how the MHA and associated practice needs to change.

150 recommendations were made including:

• strengthening the focus on human rights and including an emphasis on patient choice and autonomy on the face of the Act;
• introducing advance choice documents to enable people to set out their
  care and treatment wishes;
  • providing skilled advocates for all mental health in-patients;
  • enabling patients to choose a family member or friend as a nominated
  person with a role in decisions about the use of compulsory powers;*
  • increasing the scope for tribunals to review detention and people’s
  concerns about their care; and
  • including a statutory right to a care and treatment plan.

*Currently the MHA makes provision for a nearest relative to be appointed, but this is according to a statutory order which may not comply with the patient’s wishes or mean that the most suitable relative is appointed.  It is possible for an application to be made to Court to replace the ‘nearest relative’ in certain circumstances.

You can access the full Wessely Report by clicking on the link in the text above or access the:

Summary Wessely Report: Modernising the Mental Health Act: Increasing choice, reducing compulsion: Final Report of the Independent Review of the Mental Health Act 1983 (Summary) December 2018

EASY READ VERSION: How the Act should change

Royal College of Psychiatrists Summary of the Wessely Report

MIND Summary of the Wessely Report

Care Quality Commission Report on the rise of detentions under the MHA in England January 2o18

Draft Mental Health Bill

Draft Mental Health Bill Explanatory Notes

EASY Read Guide to Draft Mental Health Bill

CommunityCare.co.uk Guide to the Draft Mental Health Bill

The Draft Mental Health Bill was preceded by UK Government White Paper – Reforming Mental Health 24 August 2021

The White Paper proposed that new Mental Health Legislation should be based on four guiding principles, recommended by the Wessely Review, namely:

• choice and autonomy, which means ensuring that service users’ views
  and choices are respected;
• least restriction, which means ensuring that the Act’s powers are used
  in the least restrictive way;
• therapeutic benefit, which means ensuring that patients are supported
  to get better, so they can be discharged from the Act;
• the person as an individual, which means ensuring that patients are
  viewed and treated as individuals.

House of Commons Library Research Briefing on White Paper – Reforming Mental Health

House of Commons Library Research Briefing – Support for children and young people’s mental health 11 June 2021

Scotland

Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 sets out the legal position on the detention for mental health care and treatment in Scotland.

Northern Ireland

The Mental Health (Northern Ireland) Order 1986 sets out the legal position on the detention for mental health care and treatment in Northern Ireland.

Liberty Protection Safeguards

Liberty Protection Safeguards factsheets – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Liberty Protection Safeguards -Department of Health and Social Care Summary.

International

United Nations Principles for the protection of persons with mental illness and the improvement of mental health care (1991)

The Principles require a more humane approach to the treatment of mental illness, with fewer restrictions imposed on individuals and independent oversight by mental health tribunals. The Principles are criticised for still endorsing the involuntary treatment of those deemed to lack the capacity to consent.

WHO Guidelines for the Promotion of Human Rights of Persons with Mental Disorders (1996)

WHO Mental Health Care Law (1996)

The WHO sets out ten basic principles for the care of people with mental illness. These include the right to self determination and respect for the Rule of Law.

Mental Health Tribunals

Mental Health Tribunal England

Mental Health Tribunal Scotland

Mental Health Review Tribunal Wales

Royal College of Psychiatrists Guide to Mental Health Tribunals

MIND – What is a Mental Health Tribunal

Clinical Guidance

This link takes you to the Mental Health Resources published by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). This includes guidance, advice, NICE pathways and quality standards.

This link takes you to the Mental Health Resources published by the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN).

Voluntary Sector

Mind

Is a leading mental health charity, registered in England & Wales who provide advice & support for people with mental health concerns and their families. Mind have excellent resources on their website on all aspects of mental health, including information about legal rights in relation to mental health.

Mind have Infoline which can be contacted by

phone: 0300 123 3393

email: [email protected]

text: 86463

post: Mind Infoline, PO Box 75225, London, E15 9FS

Mind also have a mental health legal advice line, which can be contacted by phone: 0300 466 6463, email: [email protected] or post: Mind legal line, PO Box 75225, London, E15 9FS

Mind’s List of useful contacts for Children and Young People

Donate to Mind

SAMH – Scottish Association for Mental Health is a leading Scottish charity.

The USA based D’Amore Mental Health organisation produces this Glossary of Mental Health Terms, with the aim of education and helping overcome stigma. Note that whilst some mental health terminology and definitions are used across nations, some can vary, for example, between the USA and UK.

Further Reading

House of Commons Library, Research Briefing: Mental Health Policy in England, 30th March 2022

This briefing includes information on the impact of COVID-19 on both mental health and mental health services, and an update on progress in implementing legislation and the NHS 2019 Long Term Plan.

Scottish Government Overview of Mental Health Policy (March 2017)

This is Scottish Government’s 10-year Mental Health Strategy.

Welsh Government: Together for Mental Health, Our Mental Health Strategy (October 2012)

This is the Welsh Government’s 10-year policy plan for Mental Health.

Northern Ireland Mental Health Strategy 2021-2031

Nuffield Council on Bioethics, The Role of Technology in Mental Healthcare (28th April 2022) This briefing note explores social and ethical issues arising from the use of technology in mental healthcare.

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