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Mental Health Bill [HL]

This has been a short introduction to the next group. Clearly there are important issues in relation to the mental health of people who fall within the criminal justice system. It is important to deal with people in the most effective way possible, including what happens in court and the relationship between prisoners and the mental health service. We shall debate some of those wider issues in the next group. Members of the Committee have commented that the amendment comes from the original 2004 Bill, and the noble and learned Lord asked why that provision is not in this Bill. The 2004 draft Bill contained a comprehensive chapter consolidating court powers to remand. This is but one aspect of that consolidating chapter. The Government took the decision in the light of the extraordinary public debate and the work done by the scrutiny committee, so ably led by the noble Lord, Lord Carlile, that we would not bring forward a comprehensive Bill, as proposed, but would focus on a number of issues amending the 1983 Act. It is worth saying that the 2004 Bill exercised many people’s minds, but one of the messages that came from stakeholders was concern about its length and complexity. We ultimately decided to introduce a much shorter Bill, which has inevitably meant that some desirable aspects of the original Bill—although, as the noble Lord, Lord Patel, said, not every aspect commended itself to noble Lords—are not in this Bill. I know that noble Lords have cherry picked some amendments from the 2004 draft Bill, but that is essentially why this provision does not appear. There are two issues: first, what the law currently allows; and, secondly, what can be done to improve good practice. We have heard of instances where the system is not working and falls down, and there are clearly lessons to be learnt on how to improve it. The noble Lord referred to better case management, which seems an excellent way to describe it. As so often in mental health services, however, the solution is to improve management: to ensure that things are better organised and resources better deployed. The amendment would make explicit provision for the courts to require a medical report when remanding a defendant on bail. It would apply where the court had medical evidence suggesting a defendant was mentally disordered. This is unnecessary because the court is already required to take account of a defendant’s mental state before sentencing, under Section 157 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003. It will often wish to order the defendant’s admission to hospital to ensure that a report on their condition can be completed. Sometimes a court will be satisfied that a report can be effectively prepared with the defendant simply remanded on bail. That can already be done. Under the Bail Act 1976, a court may remand a defendant on bail and require his co-operation with any inquiry intended to inform the trial process. Courts do that, on occasion, when they need to obtain medical reports. The combined effect of the Bail Act and the1983 Act is that courts have a wide range of powers to obtain medical reports on defendants, either following admission to hospital or on bail. There is also a problem in singling out this provision from the 2004 draft Bill, and confusion as to why that power would be moved from the Bail Act when we are not otherwise amending court powers to remand. I was interested in the views of the noble Lord, Lord Carlile, on how the system operates and case management. I am certainly prepared to look at this matter, not so much in terms of legislation but to see what can be done to improve the situation, if the noble Lord would care to communicate with me further.