Clause 32
Mental Health Bill [Lords]
4:30 pm
Angela Browning (Deputy Chairman (Organising and Campaigning), Conservative Party; Tiverton and Honiton, Conservative)
Within the criminal justice system, a court has the right to waive a prison sentence where the person is agreeable to a drug or alcohol treatment centre programme on the basis that should they fall through the net, they go back to a prison sentence. The amount of support that goes into supporting a drug addict in such circumstances is surely far more in terms of resource than what the Minister is proposing.