Clause 3
Mental Health Bill [Lords]
4:45 pm
Tim Boswell (Daventry, Conservative)
On a more substantive point thanmy earlier one, does the Minister appreciate that the background to this matter inevitably concerns not necessarily the practice in the United Kingdom, the good faith of Ministers or the system, but the fact that in certain countries there are chilling experiences of persons being singled out for mental treatment because their face does not fit? That may be because oftheir sexual identity or because they happen to hold political beliefs, which we might all find thoroughly objectionable, or they may be regarded as morally disreputable, but none of those things constitutes a mental illness on its own. Some other evidence would be required for compulsory treatment to be appropriate. If that evidence were available, these tests could reasonably be set aside.