Schedule 6
Mental Health Bill [Lords]
4:30 pm
Angela Browning (Deputy Chairman (Organising and Campaigning), Conservative Party; Tiverton and Honiton, Conservative)
We have clear rules about charging foreign nationals. It is a matter for the Government to determine health service policy, whether it is to do with physical or mental health. I have a lot of sympathy for people who are mentally ill. They often come to the attention of the appropriate authorities only after ending up on the streets. Anybody who is identified as having a serious illness is entitled to treatment—charging is a matter for the Government to decide. I would not preclude foreign nationals from receiving appropriate treatment whether they had come here of their own volition or been hoodwinked into coming here.
The legislation begins to identify and treat people differently, and to apply different sets of rules to people who, for their own good, have had their liberty removed. If people are sectioned under the existing Mental Health Act, everything is paid for, whereas those dealt with under the Mental Capacity Act are charged for their care. The danger for the Minister is that once the measures are operational and such things become apparent, relatives, carers and others might try to encourage patients down the Mental Health Act route because of the financial consequences for them and possibly even for those associated with them.