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Mental Health Bill [HL]

My Lords, when I was little, if I had said to anyone that I would one day be a Member of your Lordships' House, they might have thought that I had delusions of grandeur. If I had told them that I would one day be understudy to the noble Lord, Lord Rix, I think that they would have called the doctors. Today, it is my privilege to be the noble Lord’s understudy. I will try to do him justice. I pay enormous tribute to him. Although he has not been part of our debates, he has worked so hard behind the scenes to plug away at these issues, which are most important. I join the noble Baroness in sending the best wishes of the whole House to him. I thank the noble Baroness, as the noble Lord would, if he were here, because she has fully addressed the concerns that we raised with her earlier. What she has done is right. Those of us who had the privilege to take part in deliberations on the Mental Capacity Bill thought about and discussed long and hard the role and involvement of relatives in many decisions on behalf of people who do not have capacity. Often, rightly, we decided that relatives should not play a role. This time, we are absolutely right to say that they should and to exercise that tremendous safeguard for people who are enormously vulnerable because they are deprived of their liberty, as happened in the case that went to the European Court. The noble Baroness rightly identified all the things that matter to them, such as having access to information and the requirement that once a deprivation has been noted, it must be registered in a number of places. On my behalf and that of the noble Lord, Lord Rix, I thank the noble Baroness very much for that. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.