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Mental Health Bill [Lords]

Clearly. At the moment, there are three exclusions in the mental health legislation as it stands. Our intention is to keep the exclusion for alcohol and drug dependence, but to abolish those for sexual deviancy and for"““promiscuity and other immoral conduct.””" The exclusion for promiscuity and immoral conduct dates back to the 1959 Act and the way mental health legislation had been misused before that to detain unmarried mothers and otherwise enforce moral codes. The exclusion has now served its purpose and is no longer needed. The exclusion for sexual deviancy added in 1982 was probably intended to refer to homosexuality. As my hon. Friend the Member for Rhondda said, that was at that time still listed as mental disorder in the international classification of diseases. However, that exclusion was quickly associated with paedophilia and sexual offending. Its effect has been that paedophiles, for example, can be detained and treated under the Act, but only where clinicians diagnose an underlying condition, such as an antisocial personality disorder. Paedophilia—though a recognised mental disorder in itself—is excluded because of the provision on sexual deviancy, which is why we are removing it. The amendments propose a set of new exclusions, but most of them refer to things that are not mental disorders in the first place. In other debates on these matters, in Committee and elsewhere in the House, Opposition Members have maintained that the proposals are less to do with what is happening at the moment than with what might happen if a very extreme Government were to take over—