As anticipated, the King's Speech included mental health law reform as one of the new Labour government's legislative priorities: "My ministers will legislate to modernise the Mental Health Act so it is fit for the twenty first century". 

Continuing our series of articles tracking the progress of these reform plans, we look at what the new government has in store for the Mental Health Act and how soon (or otherwise) we can expect change to happen.

What is the new government proposing?

In a nutshell, the government has committed in the King's Speech to producing a Mental Health Bill setting out proposed changes to the Mental Health Act.  It seems this will include many of the central elements of the draft Mental Health Bill produced back in 2022 by the previous government, but the pace of implementation will be cautious given the need to ensure the right resources are in place to support the changes.

The government's background briefing to the King's Speech provides some detail about what the proposed Mental Health Bill will cover, including:

• Revising detention criteria to ensure people can only be detained if they pose a risk of serious harm to themselves or others and where there is a reasonable prospect that the treatment will have therapeutic benefit;

• Shortening the period for which people may be kept in detention for treatment and providing faster, more frequent reviews of both detentions and treatment;

• Limiting the extent to which people with a learning disability or autism can be detained and treated under the MHA and "supporting such individuals to live fulfilling lives in their community", including by introducing duties on commissioners to ensure an adequate supply of community services to prevent inappropriate detentions;

• Adding statutory weight to patients' rights to be involved in planning their care and to make choices and refusals regarding their treatment;

• Replacing the 'nearest relative' with the 'nominated person', who will be chosen by the patient;

• Extending Independent Mental Health Advocate access to informal patients and introducing an opt-out system for formal patients;

• Removing police stations and prisons as places of safety under the MHA;

• "Supporting offenders with severe mental health problems to access the care they need as quickly and early as possible, and improve the management of those patients subject to a restriction order (for the purposes of public protection)". Whilst it is not completely clear what is being proposed here, this is likely to be referring to provisions in the previous government's draft Bill around reducing transfer times from prison to hospital and plans for the 'supervised discharge' of restricted patients.

Whilst we do not yet have all the detail, this list of proposed changes will be very familiar to those who have been following the progress of the previous government's proposals for reform and it seems that the new government intends to implement much of what was contained in its predecessor's draft Mental Health Bill.

It will be interesting to see the extent to which the new government adopts the recommendations of the Joint Committee which reported on the draft Mental Health Bill in January 2023.  The King's Speech briefing document makes no mention, for example, of appointing a Mental Health Commissioner or abolishing Community Treatment Orders for Part 2 patients, both of which were recommended by the Joint Committee.

Notably, there was also nothing in the King's Speech or the accompanying briefing document about the interface with mental capacity legislation or about progressing plans to replace the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards.

What timescales can we expect?

The new government seems keen to manage expectations about when we will see these changes implemented, stating that: "These reforms will take a number of years to implement, as we will need to recruit and train more clinical and judicial staff".

This caution about the speed at which the reforms can happen echoes the Joint Committee's emphasis on the importance of proper resourcing of the plans, with the government proposing to introduce these "in phases as resources allow". 

In practice, this is likely to mean that changes such as removing those with a learning disability or autism from the scope of section 3 detention will not happen imminently, given the need to first ensure adequate community provision for them.

What next?

The next step will be for the government to publish its Mental Health Bill, as promised in the King's Speech. The Bill will then undergo the scrutiny of the House of Commons and House of Lords on its legislative journey through Parliament.

Whilst the Bill is likely to be broadly similar to the draft version produced by the previous government, it remains to be seen how it will look in detail.

However, the slow pace of change here is unlikely to pick up overnight because the success of the proposals depends so much on having the necessary resources in place to support them.

We will continue to keep you up-to-date with further developments as they happen.