---

Mental Health Bill [Lords]

Indeed, and as I explained on Second Reading, a hospital in my constituency specialises in eating disorder cases, and some of the children who attend it are extremely young. In Committee, we debated age-appropriate facilities for children, and learned of a child as young as 10 who was in very inappropriate accommodation when receiving in-patient hospital treatment. So yes, those children can be very young and very vulnerable. I want to say a little about nearest relatives and carers. Between consideration in Committee and today, my right hon. Friend the Minister and I corresponded on this subject, and I am disappointed at not having made any progress. There is one issue that I would like to bring to the head of my wish list: I want the Minister at least to look again at the definition of a carer. At the moment, we are reliant on the 1983 Act, which says that a carer is somebody who has been caring for five years, which then gets them on to the nearest relative list. If they are living with the patient at the time that such services are required, they can go to the top of that list. However, the position of carers has moved on a long way since 1983. Since then, there has been a Labour Government—since 1997—and we have the country’s first ever national strategy for carers and the first dedicated funding for carers, rather than for the people whom they care for. We have also established for the first time an entitlement for a carer to have an assessment of their needs, rather than of the person whom they care for. So the definition of a carer today is very different from simply being someone who has lived with a person for five years. Of course, many carers do not live with the person whom they care for, even though they are their full-time carer, so I would argue that we still need to look at the definition of carer. I understand why my right hon. Friend the Minister is not attracted to new clause 17, but it does at least bring up to date the definition of a carer, in line with the legislation introduced in 2000, which is the latest to deal with carers. I turn to my final point on the ability to nominate someone to be the nearest relative. I have read the correspondence that my right hon. Friend sent to me and I accept all the arguments, but I ask whether there is one last option—one quite similar to that given in a briefing that we received from the Law Society. Here, I should declare another interest as a non-practising solicitor. If the person in question could nominate from a closed list, rather than an open one, would that get round the problems associated with the European convention on human rights that my right hon. Friend mentioned? If the closed list could simply be the nearest relative list with an updated definition of a carer included, could not the person in question—when they are not subject to the powers under the 1983 Act—at least nominate somebody from that list in order to bring them to the top of it, rather than somebody who is completely outside that list? That is my last suggestion for the Minister, and I hope that it is of some help.