Clause 55
Mental Health Bill [Lords]
5:30 pm

Tim Loughton (Shadow Minister (Children), Health; East Worthing and Shoreham, Conservative)

I usually try to put something into the last clause of a Bill. The Government have just taken out something without explaining why, but we shall pass that by. There is already a Mental Health Act 1983 and a Mental Health Act 1959, and my experience of dealing with legislation on children during the past few years is that a lot of Acts either have the title “Children Act” or have the word “children” somewhere in the title. I wonder why the Bill cannot be called the Mental Health (Amendment) Bill, given that it is a Bill to amend the 1983 Act rather than a Bill in its own right. That would at least distinguish it when people are referring to different parts of the mental health legislation.

Rosie Winterton (Minister of State (Health Services), Department of Health; Doncaster Central, Labour)

In my experience to date, titles of Bills are subject to endless discussion—unsurprisingly. There was much discussion, for example, on whether the Mental Capacity Bill should instead have been called the Mental Incapacity Bill. We have to rely on the outstanding advice that we receive, and on this occasion we were advised that the right title would be “Mental Health Bill”.