Mental Health Bill [HL] 2024-25

The Mental Health Bill [HL] (Bill 225 2024-25) is a government bill. It was introduced in the House of Lords on 6 November 2024 and completed its Lords stages on 23 April 2025. The bill was introduced in the House of Commons on 24 April 2025 and will have its second reading on 19 May 2025. The bill would extend to England and Wales only (apart from the general clauses at the end of the bill that would extend across the UK).

The government has published explanatory notes to the bill as brought from the House of Lords. An initial impact assessment was published in November 2024. The government published a supplementary note summarising the cost implications of government amendments made during Lords stages in April 2025.

The bill has been examined by the House of Lords Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee and by the Joint Committee on Human Rights.

A Keeling schedule available on the bill page shows amendments to be made to the Mental Health Act 1983 by the 2025 bill as amended in the Lords.

What are the aims of the bill?

The bill would amend the Mental Health Act 1983 (‘the act’). The act provides the legal framework for the compulsory (without consent) detention, assessment and treatment of people who have a mental disorder and are considered at risk of harm to themselves or others. When someone is detained in hospital under the act, this is sometimes referred to as being ‘sectioned’.

The Labour Party committed to reforming the 1983 act in its 2024 manifesto, arguing that it is “woefully out of date” and describing the treatment of autistic people and people with a learning disability in mental health hospital settings as a “disgrace”. It also said that the operation of the act discriminates against Black people.

The measures in the bill are intended to:

• strengthen the voice of patients subject to the act
• add statutory weight to patients’ rights to be involved in planning for their care and in choices about treatment
• increase the scrutiny of detention to ensure it is only used when necessary and only for as long as necessary
• limit how the act can be used to detain autistic people and people with a learning disability

What is the timeline for reform?

The reforms proposed by the bill respond to recommendations from an independent review of the 1983 act commissioned by the then Conservative government in 2017. The final report of the review, Modernising the Mental Health Act, was published in December 2018.

Most of the independent review’s recommendations were taken forward in a 2021 white paper, Reforming the Mental Health Act, which was subject to public consultation. The government published the consultation outcome and its response in August 2021.

The consultation was used to inform a draft Mental Health Bill published in June 2022. A joint select committee carried out pre-legislative scrutiny of the bill and published its report in January 2023.

The Conservative government published its response to the joint committee’s report in March 2024 but a bill was not introduced in Parliament before the 2024 general election.

The Commons Library briefing Reforming the Mental Health Act covers the timeline of proposed reforms to the 1983 act in more detail.

Terminology

This briefing refers to people detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 as ‘patients’. This reflects the language used in the act. In practice, people subject to the act may prefer language such as ‘service user’, ‘client’, or other wording. The mental health charity Mind has published guidance on talking about mental health.

This briefing also talks about ‘autistic people’ and ‘people with a learning disability’. These terms are used separately to reflect differences in the application of the act, but it should be noted that some autistic people also have a learning disability.

The National Autistic Society (NAS) has published information on what autism is and how it affects people. This briefing uses the term ‘autistic people’, in line with the NAS’s guidance on how to talk and write about autism.

The charity Mencap has published information on what learning disability means. This briefing uses the term ‘people with a learning disability’, in line with Mencap’s guide to learning disability for journalists