Reforming the Mental Health Act
Applies to England and Wales
Read the full outcome
Detail of outcome
The government hosted a public consultation from 13 January 2021 to 21 April 2021 on a set of proposals to reform the Mental Health Act.
We received over 1,700 responses. This report is the government’s formal response to this consultation.
Further details on the impact of costs and benefits can be found in the impact assessment.
The Welsh response is currently being translated and will be uploaded as soon as possible.
See the easy read version.
Original consultation
Consultation description
In 2017 the government asked for an independent review of the Mental Health Act 1983 (MHA), to look at how it’s used and to suggest ways to improve it.
The review’s final report said that the MHA does not always work as well as it should for patients, their families and their carers.
We’re now proposing a wide range of changes to rebalance the MHA, to put patients at the centre of decisions about their own care and ensure everyone is treated equally.
The changes are based on 4 principles that have been developed with people with lived experience of the MHA. They are:
- choice and autonomy – ensuring service users’ views and choices are respected
- least restriction – ensuring the MHA’s powers are used in the least restrictive way
- therapeutic benefit – ensuring patients are supported to get better, so they can be discharged from the MHA
- the person as an individual – ensuring patients are viewed and treated as individuals
See the easy read version.
Documents
Updates to this page
Last updated 24 August 2021 + show all updates
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Added the HTML version of 'Reforming the Mental Health Act: government response'.
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Added the government's response to the consultation.
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Added Welsh version of full white paper: 'Diwygio'r Ddeddf Iechyd Meddwl'.
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First published.