Clause 3
Mental Health Bill [Lords]
4:45 pm
Rosie Winterton (Minister of State (Health Services), Department of Health; Doncaster Central, Labour)
I am not clear whether sex addiction is a mental disorder. I suspect that it probably is. [Interruption.] I can see that we are getting into deep water. However, to return to the point about sexual deviancy, the problem has been that although various things, such as homosexuality, are not considered a mental disorder, nevertheless things such as paedophilia and paraphilia are considered a mental disorder. The danger is that it has previously been possible for a paedophile to argue, for example, that they were excluded from the Mental Health Act, as some might prefer a prison sentence to a hospital order. We wish to get rid of that in order to prevent such problems from arising.