Compromise on Mental Health Bill

The Mental Health Bill faced opposition from campaigners and MPs alike but gained its third reading by 272 to 202 votes - a majority of 70 - and has now completed its passage through Parliament.

It has agreed a compromise, ensuring that compulsory treatment must be of "therapeutic benefit".

Labour MP Chris Bryant said “We cannot just be detaining people for the purpose of detaining them. There has to be some kind of therapeutic benefit”. He said psychiatric units should not become "prisons by another name" and added that mentally ill people have the right to appropriate treatment.

Health Minister Rosie Winterton told MPs that mental health organisations had urged her to back the amendment.

She said it was a good compromise, as it was based on the purpose of medical treatment - "it does not turn on the likelihood of treatment achieving that purpose".

Health Minster Ivan Lewis and mental health expert Professor Louis Appleby both welcomed the final stages of the parliamentary passage of the Mental Health Bill as a vital step towards modern community services.