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Mental Health Bill [HL]

My Lords, I too welcome this group of amendments and I endorse entirely the remarks made by the noble Lord, Lord Williamson. I congratulate him warmly on the success of his dogged campaign. I have a question on Amendment No. 9 which deals with the definition of medical treatment. It is an extremely important amendment. The Minister said that the word ““manifestations”” in the amendment does not provide the same scope for misinterpretation as the House identified with the word ““effects””. Can the Minister confirm that ““manifestations”” amounts to the same thing as ““signs””, which is the professional term used to describe evidence elicited by the clinician as a result of observing the patient? What I hope the amendment would not allow is preventive detention for reasons of social control or public order. It would do so only if ““manifestations”” could be interpreted as including offending behaviour. Detention in hospital to stop offending would therefore amount to treatment. It would be helpful if the Minister could tell me that the amendment could in no circumstances be interpreted in that way.