LEGISLATION
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1983.tb02520.x |
| Published date | 01 May 1983 |
| Date | 01 May 1983 |
LEGISLATION
MENTAL HEALTH (AMENDMENT) ACT
1982
THE
Mental Health (Amendment) Act
1982
received the Royal Assent
on October
28, 1982,
almost one year after it had been introduced into
the House of Lordls. It comes into force, in the main, on September
30,
1983.’
The Bill, which was accompanied by a White Paper,a was
introduced in resplonse to increasing demands for changes to be made
to the Mental Health Act
1959.
These demands recognised that the
1959
Act was a major piece of enlightened social legislation, the basic
scheme
of
which did not require alteration, but considered that certain
aspects needed to be reviewed. Consequently the Act, which is to be
warmly welcomed,, appears to have made important strides in achieving
a fairer balance
of
the competing interests of patients, staff and public.
It is an amending statute consisting of
70
sections and five schedules,
most of which do not make sense unless read in conjunction with the
1959
Act. This
is
particularly unfortunate because most of those who
have to deal with the Act are not practised in reading statutes. The
White Paper’s promise of a consolidation Bill has been fulfilled and
will be the Mental Health Act
1983.3
It would be impossible
to
deal
with all the provisions of the Act in the space available and therefore
only the more significant provisions will be ~overed.~ These are dealt
with in terms of the Act’s themes.
The Special Standing Committee procedure was again adopted in the
House of Commons, allowing the Committee to receive written state-
ments from, and examine some, witnesses. M.P.s frequently com-
mended this procedure during the Bill’s later stages.6 Several changes
were made during the Bill’s passage. On a number of occasions the
Government accelpted amendments
of
which they did not approve,
bowing to the wi!;ldom of Parliament. Most significantly the House of
Lords achieved the imposition of a duty on local authorities to provide
after-care and thLe Special Standing Committee secured the right to
register for electoral purposes.’
Dejnitions
The philosophy
d’
the legislation is to encourage informal admission,
s.
69.
Cmnd. 8405,
Reform
of the
Mentd
Health Legislation
(referred to as the White Paper).
The provisions are, of course, the same but section numbers will change. These can
be obtained by reference
to
the Table of Derivations appended
to
the Bill.
Changes not dealt with include: amended role of mental welfare officers, the two
doctors can now come from the same hospital in certain circumstances for the medical
report supporting admission, changes in guardianship to make
it
more readily acceptable
as an alternative.
5
e.g.
H.C.Deb., Vol. 29, ser. 6, col.
40,per
Mr.
Thomas.
6
s.
51, H.L.Deb., Vol. 427, ser.
5,
cols.
1401-1417.
7
s.
62 and Sched.
2,
see Parliamentary Debates, Special Standing Committee, Session
1981-82, cols. 681-700. Recommendations amended by Government later.
318
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