Clause 36
Mental Health Bill [Lords]
11:00 am
Tim Loughton (Shadow Minister (Children), Health; East Worthing and Shoreham, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 58, page 35, line 35, leave out ‘16’ and insert ‘18’.
This is a rather simpler amendment than the last one, and enormously less long. It is about the referral to mental health review tribunals. Again, it reflects our concern about how children and young people are treated in the Bill. We are trying to ensure that safeguards are put in place for all children under 18. Its purpose is to ensure that children under 18 are reviewed at least annually by a tribunal. At present, only children under 16 are automatically entitled to an annual review. We think that they should have at least an annual review given the sensitivity of their position. After all we are talking about very vulnerable children. Children under 18 but over 16 who have no one to look after their interests, such as unaccompanied asylum seekers or those whose parents do not understand the mental health system, might not be reviewed for three years. Surely, that is far too long in the life of a young person.
The point of the amendment is simple. It reinforces the fact that those under 18 are regarded in law as children, and it would safeguard their rights. Although we are not talking about an enormous number of children each year, surely it is a worthwhile safeguard to ensure that children under 18 do not have to wait for up to three years, as they could in some cases, for a review of their position——of their continued sectioning or other treatment——by the mental health review tribunal.