Mental Health Bill [HL] 2024-25: progress of the bill

• The Mental Health Bill [HL] (Bill 225 2024-25) received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025 and became the Mental Health Act 2025. The 2025 act makes changes to the Mental Health Act 1983, which provides the legal framework to detain and treat people who have a mental disorder and are considered at risk of harm to themselves or others. The government has said it delivers “on a key manifesto commitment”.
• The bill was introduced by the government in the House of Lords on 6 November 2024 and introduced in the House of Commons on 24 June 2025. The Library briefing on the bill as introduced in the Commons provides background information to the bill and summarises its progress through the House of Lords. The briefing attached to this page was published on 1 August 2025. It provides an overview of the progress of the bill through the House of Commons prior to report stage.
• Two minor government drafting amendments were made at report stage. Two further government amendments were made during parliamentary ’ping pong‘, relating to who should be a nominated person for a patient under 16 who lacks competence.

What were the aims of the bill?

The bill would amend the Mental Health Act 1983 (‘the 1983 act’). The 1983 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 1983 act, this is sometimes referred to as being ‘sectioned’.

The Labour Party committed to reforming the 1983 act in its 2024 manifesto, arguing that the 1983 act is “woefully out of date” and describing the treatment of autistic people and people with a learning disability in mental health hospitals as a “disgrace”.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

The measures in the bill are intended to:

• strengthen the voice of patients subject to the 1983 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 1983 act can be used to detain autistic people and people with a learning disability

Further information is provided in the Library briefing on the bill as introduced in the Commons.

The bill, together with explanatory notes as brought from the House of Lords, impact assessments and transcripts of the parliamentary stages, are available on the parliament.uk website: Mental Health Bill [HL].

Further information is provided in the Library briefing on the bill as introduced in the Commons.

Themes from second reading in the Commons

The second reading of the Mental Health Bill [HL] took place in the House of Commons on 19 May 2025. The bill continued to receive cross-party support in the Commons, as in the Lords. Key themes from the second reading debate include:

• the government’s plans for implementing and resourcing the bill’s provisions
• concerns about current community mental health and crisis services and potential delays to the bill’s implementation
• how family members’ views can be better considered when determining whether an adult requires a mental capacity assessment
• potential consequences of preventing the detention of people with a learning disability and autistic people, and calls for support for these groups
• calls for the bill to introduce a statutory decision-making test for children and young people, and for strengthened support for them
• calls for a statutory right to an advance choice document
• calls for the bill to be strengthened to address racial disparities.
• amendments to the bill made during Lords stages that would extend to other professions the police’s powers to detain people under the 1983 act

How was the bill amended at the Commons committee stage?

The same themes as in second reading came up in the public bill committee debates. The bill was amended by the public bill committee in the following ways:

Detention

Amendments made during the Lords stages that would give other professionals the police’s powers to detain people under the 1983 act were removed from the bill.

Clause 5 was amended to remove wording stipulating that necessary detention of a person under the 1983 act must be by “a constable or other authorised person”.

Clause 50 (clause number in the bill as introduced in the Commons) was removed from the bill. This would remove the ability of an “authorised person” to take people to a place of safety to have their mental health assessed. An “authorised person” was defined as a medical practitioner, approved mental health professional, mental health nurse or doctor, or a person of description specified in regulations made by the Secretary of State to exercise powers under sections 135 and 136 of the 1983 act.

Community treatment orders

Clause 6 was amended to remove provisions relating to the duration and review of community treatment orders.

Nominated persons for a child

Schedule 2 (that would be introduced into the act by clause 24) was amended to alter provisions in some cases relating to who should be a nominated person for a patient under 16 who lacks competence.

Discharge process and consultations with an independent mental health advocate

Clause 35 was removed from the bill. This would remove the requirement that any patient who has been detained under the act be offered a consultation with an independent mental health advocate within 30 days of discharge from hospital.

Help and information for patients

Clause 45 (numbered clause 44 in the bill as amended by the public bill committee) was amended to strengthen duties on NHS England and Integrated Care Boards to support people they “consider appropriate” to make an advanced choice document.

Extending the remit of the Human Rights Act 1998

New clause 10 was added to the bill (numbered clause 52 in the bill as amended by the public bill committee). It would extend the remit of the Human Rights Act 1998 so that private providers would be required to act compatibly with the act when providing certain services arranged or paid for by public authorities.

Ping pong stages

On 24 November 2025, members of the Lords considered changes made to the bill by MPs in the Commons in a process known as parliamentary ’ping pong‘.

Detention

Members of the Lords agreed to the changes made in the Commons public bill committee to remove the extension of police powers under section 135 and 136 of the 1983 act to healthcare professionals. Baroness Merron (the parliamentary under-secretary of state), speaking on behalf of the government, announced “longer-term plans to launch a consultation into emergency police powers of detention”.

Nominated persons for a child

Two government amendments were made to the bill concerning who should be a nominated person for a patient under 16 who lacks competence. The amendment specifies in law that if no local authority has parental responsibility for a child, and there is a person within the following list who is willing to act as the nominated person, the nominated person should be either:

• a person with parental responsibility, or
• a person named in a child arrangements order as the person who the patient has to live with, or
• a special guardian.

Previously, the bill as amended in the Commons public bill committee said that in the case of a patient under 16 who lacks competence, and who a local authority does not have parental responsibility for, a person with parental responsibility should be appointed as the nominated person, but the bill did not specify exactly who this should be.

Members of the Lords debated whether the bill had adequate safeguards to ensure that a nominated person would be somebody who would act in the child’s best interests. There have been various amendments and proposals relating to this provision in the bill passage through the house.

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.