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National Assembly for Wales (Legislative Competence) (Health and Health Services and Social Welfare) Order 2010

My Lords, I thank the Minister for his clear presentation of the order. It is very interesting on several fronts. In particular, it is the first statutory instrument to have been brought to noble Lords from the Back Benches of the Welsh Assembly. It was drafted by Mr Jonathan Morgan, who, I am delighted to say, is a fellow Conservative. He should be congratulated for achieving that. As the noble Lord said, it has also been supported and approved by the Welsh Assembly Government. Without such support, Back-Bench proposals do not stand much chance of making progress. Furthermore—this is another first, at least for as long as I have been dealing with orders—it is clear. It is understandable, comparatively simple in its objectives and is a lesson to all those who will be drafting future orders. Again, I congratulate Jonathan Morgan and his team. The order is about mental health. I declare an interest; my wife has been a bipolar depressive most of her life, and still is. We have been in and out of various hospitals, meeting psychiatrists, and so know a little about the subject. Believe it or not, one in four of us is likely at some stage in our life to suffer from some type of mental illness. That is a dramatic figure: 25 per cent of the population. From my own experience, the attention given to people with mental health problems by the National Health Service leaves a lot to be desired. Let us hope that this statutory instrument will allow much more efficient access and assessment. The noble Lord said that it was not compulsory to be tested, which is as it should be. I know that he said that, because I read it. This does not make it compulsory to test a person, other than under the law where, at a disastrous stage, a sick person sadly may be locked up and sectioned. There is one further important matter. This will allow early intervention, assuming that there are friends and carers around. I have no doubt, from my experiences, about the importance of early intervention. I am told that it is now possible sometimes to diagnose Alzheimer's in fairly young people who have no obvious signs of it, and that drugs, while they cannot repair the damage that has been done, can prevent further damage. I do not know the names of the drugs, but I have been told on good authority that they are available. Overall, I strongly support the instrument.