Mental Health Bill [HL]

I am grateful to noble Lords for raising this issue. However, the Committee may consider it better for the other place to have a go at this before we come to consider it again. The Government are not persuaded that we should change the legislation at the moment. When the Speaker is notified that a Member is suffering from a mental disorder, as the noble Baroness intimated, he arranges for the Member to be examined by independent registered medical practitioners experienced in mental disorders—appointed by no less than the august person of the president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, to whom we owe much in relation to our debate today. I know that the provision reads as if it is stigmatising and discriminatory, because legislators suffering from serious physical illnesses are not covered by similar provisions in other legislation. I think that a case can be made for it in the sense that the nature of mental disorder could affect whether a Member thinks he can still adequately do his job. We are also talking about cases where the individual is not being treated informally with their valid consent but compulsorily. The individual is being treated in hospital, so their freedom of movement is reliant on their being granted leave. Their ability to come to the legislature, or to be brought there to participate and vote, is therefore not in their own hands. That is rather distinct from the type of physical illness that the noble Baroness mentioned. It is true that Section 141 has not, to our knowledge, been used since the Act became law. However, if a legislator is still detained at the end of six months, it is not entirely wrong to suggest that their constituents—and we should think of the public interest; no one has mentioned the electorate or those whom the Member of Parliament is there to serve—should have the right to seek alternative representation. That could not be done without the legislator’s seat being vacated. Overall, however, I think it is a matter for the other place.