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Mental Health Bill [Lords]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman, whose professional background has enabled him to play an important role in our consideration of the Bill. The point made by Mind is repeated by the Mental Health Alliance, representing patients in this context. It states:"““The position under the 1983 Act, whereby a single doctor decides whether or not to renew a patient’s detention for up to twelve months is unacceptable.””""The Alliance believes reform is needed that would satisfy the following principles—at least two professional opinions should agree the detention, with those opinions coming from different disciplines, and at least one of them providing the ‘objective medical expertise’ required by human rights legislation.””" When looking at renewal of detention, the British Medical Association also says that renewal should require opinions from"““two professionals, from different professional backgrounds, one of whom must be able to provide ‘objective medical expertise’…as required under the European case-law””." In other words, the BMA makes the same point as the Joint Committee. The Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Royal Society reach similar conclusions in a briefing that they prepared on the Bill. The Joint Committee is worried that, if the proposals in the Bill are passed as they stand—simply based on broad competencies, without any of the detail fleshed out—the UK is at risk of falling foul of the European Court of Human Rights in cases where detention under the Mental Health Act has not been authorised by a properly qualified medical practitioner. That is a real risk. I know that there are other legal views, but the Joint Committee has a good track record in offering opinions on such matters. I suspect that our opinion is more likely to be correct than legal opinions produced by those who are perhaps not quite as objective and independent as the Committee, to justify a particular cause or pressure group’s views. I hope that my right hon. Friend the Minister of State will provide more detail of what is going on in relation to competencies. If she does, we might yet achieve the meeting of minds that has eluded us thus far.