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Mental Health Bill [HL]

I want to make a very short statement. I was not planning to speak to this amendment, although I completely agree with all the comments that have been made. I feel I have to speak briefly in direct response to what the noble Lord, Lord Soley, said. I hope that I heard his comments incorrectly and that there was no suggestion that we might justify an inferior quality of care—or what I would probably state to be an illegal service—to somebody whose first language was not English. We have come across too many of those situations. The language issue is a very good example of why paragraph (g) of Amendment No. 1 is absolutely perfect, because it stops practitioners from turning a blind eye to someone who is a difficult patient. It goes beyond that. Where there are issues of sexual orientation, it draws to the attention of the practitioner, the RMO, that something needs to be done. It is really important that we deal with such issues. I want to make another comment in response to the remarks of the noble Lord, Lord Warner. If any part of the 1983 Act is counter to the principles listed here, then we should root it out as there is absolutely no room for those discriminatory practices in the legislation that we currently have.