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Compulsorily Detained Psychiatric Patients

Answer

The Government has prioritised introducing these reforms through the Mental Health Act 2025, and is committed to implementing this legislation so that people with serious mental illness and people with a learning disability and autistic people see real improvements in their care and outcomes as soon as possible.

We are working to develop the revised Code of Practice to enable the commencement of the first major set of reforms, phase 1, in 2028/29. We will be engaging extensively on this and particularly we are keen to ensure that we reflect the views of clinicians and other professionals, as well as those with lived experience, their families and carers, and other organisations, including organisations advocating for people with a learning disability and autistic people.

To support this work, we are running an open tender process for an external organisation to lead engagement with people with lived experience, including people with a learning disability, autistic people, and their families and carers to ensure their perspectives are informing the development of the updated statutory guidance. As part of our governance structures to support drafting of the Code of Practice, we have established an Expert Reference Group which includes representatives from Mencap and the National Autistic Society.

We intend to go to public consultation on the revised Code of Practice in the first half of 2027. We will then need to train the workforce on the reforms and the new Code of Practice, ahead of the code being laid before Parliament. We intend for the new code to come into force in parallel with phase 1 reforms.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

HL1450

Session

2026-27

Subjects

Codes of practice Compulsorily detained psychiatric patients Learning disability

Legislation

Mental Health Act 2025

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk