The Mental Health Bill 2025 was introduced in the House of Lords on 6 November 2024 with the primary purpose being to amend the Mental Health Act 1983. It was introduced to the House of Commons on 24 April 2025 and is currently at committee stage. Once the bill has received approval from both Houses of Parliament, it will go through Royal Assent to become an Act of Parliament. On the current timeline, if passed, some initial parts of the proposed legislation may be introduced in 2026 or 2027 however, full implementation of the reform may take up to 10 years.
The Mental Health Bill 2025 was driven by an independent review in 2018 which highlighted the following problems:
In this article, we outline what the bill is aiming to achieve and how it might impact healthcare providers.
The principles behind the bill focus on four keys areas.
Choice and autonomy - respecting and listening to patient’s views and choices, ensuring they are actively involved in the decisions about their care and treatment.
Least restriction - ensuring the Mental Health Bill 2025's powers are used in the least restrictive way as possible, promoting the maximum independence and freedom for individuals.
Therapeutic benefit - ensuring that patients receive the right support and treatment to improve their well-being, promoting recovery and better outcomes.
The person as an individual - emphasising treating each person with dignity and respect, considering their unique circumstances, characteristics and past experiences.
Amongst other things, the current iteration of the Mental Health Bill 2025 includes additional responsibility on the patient’s responsible clinician to consult more widely with other professionals. This is aimed at ensuring a more thorough assessment of the patient’s risk and needs.
The bill also introduces enhanced care planning which requires the appropriate practitioner to prepare a more detailed care and treatment plan for meeting patients' needs, for example, there is a proposed requirement to include safety management plans for patients requiring them.
In line with the patient-centred approach, the current drafting of the Mental Health Bill 2025 also requires clinicians to consider the patient’s preferences and involve ‘Nominated Persons’ in care decisions.
In addition, the Bill proposes to tighten the criteria for CTO's, by limiting their use and duration. It seeks to ensure CTOs are only used when there is a risk of serious harm, and aims to prevent the inappropriate use of CTOs.
Further, the bill acknowledges the importance of community-based services with an aim to shift away from a largely hospital-based provision.
Ultimately, for healthcare providers the Mental Health Bill 2025 introduces increased responsibility for patient safety and new standards in terms of discharge and care planning. The bill further focuses on a holistic approach to patient care with patient choice and consultation with patients and their relatives/representatives at the centre of this.
The bill seeks to be one of the many pieces in the puzzle to improving how and where people from all backgrounds access high quality mental health and care services.
For further information or advice, please contact our healthcare, digital health and life sciences team.
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