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Mental Health Bill [Lords]

Of course I understand that, and I know that my hon. Friend is concerned about this particular issue. As I said, I examined it very closely and asked my officials to see whether there was a way of trying to accommodate that development. Let me set out some of the reasons why we decided that there was a real difficulty with such a provision. If we allowed an automatic right to appoint the nearest relative in advance, to comply with the European convention on human rights it would be necessary to set up a system by which nominations could be ratified by an independent process with a suitable mechanism for appealing decisions. There is no existing body that could do that; we would have to set up a new body, whereas at the moment we take such issues to the county courts. We would still need a process by which to make that happen. For example, we would need to be able to allow a nearest relative who was being displaced to appeal if they felt that it was the wrong approach. I understand the argument that it would be possible for someone to nominate a person in advance when they were not subject to the legislation—that is, when they were not in a detained situation—in anticipation of being detained, but for ECHR compliance it would be difficult to have one system for people who were not detained and a completely different system, under which people had no access to that right, when they were being detained. Restricting the provisions to carers alone would also have particular problems. Amendment No. 105 would add another ground on which applications could be made to displace the nearest relative—"““that in the reasonable opinion of the patient the person is not appropriate””," and would also amend ground (e) in clause 23(5). I understand the concerns expressed about the Bill’s new ground of being ““not suitable””. For the first time, patients can apply on those grounds and say that they believe that their current nearest relative is not suitable. Concerns have been expressed about whether the provision would cover situations where patients have no real relationship with their nearest relative. Although it is important that the courts look at each case on its merits, we intend the idea of unsuitability to cover situations where there is no effective relationship between the patient and their nearest relative, or where the relationship has broken down irretrievably. Given the other changes that we are making, we believe that our proposals cover some of the problems highlighted by my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Selly Oak in amendments Nos. 104 and 105. We shall continue to hold consultations about the code of practice and I am happy to include my hon. Friend in them, as I know she is particularly concerned.