Repeal of section 141 of the Mental Health Act 1983

In January 2010, the Speaker’s Conference on Parliamentary Representation recommended that section 141 of the Mental Health Act 1983 should be repealed. Under section 141, Members of Parliament detained on grounds of mental illness may have had to vacate their seat, although in practice no seats were vacated under this provision.

The provision was repealed by the Mental Health Discrimination Act 2013. It was introduced as a private Members’ bill and piloted through the House of Commons by Gavin Barwell, following a commitment from the Government, first to repeal the provision, and then an undertaking to support a private Members’ bill to do so.

Section 1 of the Mental Health Discrimination Act 2013, which repealed section 141 of the 1983 Act, came into force at the end of April 2013