Mental Health Bill [HL]

My Lords, I apologise for intervening because I know that the House wants to reach a decision, but I just want to say that that is not the Government’s view. Ours is not a paternalistic approach. The noble Earl, Lord Howe, ignores the fact that the patients to whom these provisions will apply are those who have already been detained under the provisions of the Mental Health Act. Supervised community treatment, far from being paternalistic, will offer a number of patients a greatly enhanced process over simply continuing to be detained in hospital.