Mental Health Bill [HL]

I support the amendment. The Minister will know that there are many opportunities for review of an authorisation. It can be instigated by a carer, a care home or a hospital where a change in someone’s situation is noticed, and that, I take it, is why an automatic review at 12 months is considered by the Government to be a kind of long-stop measure that will affect relatively few people. I note the kind of examples that have been quoted, particularly the one just mentioned by the noble Baroness, Lady Barker, but there will also be cases where an individual or their carer may not have the confidence or the knowledge of the system to feel able to instigate a review of their authorisation, and for those people as well 12 months seems far too long to wait for a review of their situation, if one presupposes that it is not in the best interests of the person concerned to be deprived of liberty. My understanding is that the Government justify the length of authorisation on two grounds. First, they have said that the automatic review at six months would be over-burdensome on services that are already stretched. Secondly, they say that authorisations would generally be for shorter periods and that therefore the provision would affect relatively few people. As I have just said, the automatic review at 12 months is just a long stop to prevent indefinite detention. If I have got the Government’s position right, their two arguments are mutually exclusive. If it is true that relatively few people would be affected, reducing the maximum length of an authorisation could not be over-burdensome. I hope that the Minister will agree to look again at this modification.