Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, given that the Independent Review of the Mental Health Act was published five years ago and that the most recent Conservative manifesto included a promise to legislate in this Parliament, why a bill on Mental Health Act reform was not mentioned in the King's Speech.

We recognise that the absence of a Mental Health Bill in the King’s Speech is disappointing to many people. It remains our intention to bring forward a Mental Health Bill when Parliamentary time allows.

We continue to take forward non-legislative commitments to improve the care and treatment of people detained under the Act, including continuing to pilot models of Culturally Appropriate Advocacy, which will provide tailored support to hundreds of people from ethnic minorities to better understand their rights when they are detained under the Mental Health Act. NHS England has launched the Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework for all mental health trusts in the National Health Service to embed across England. We are also investing over £400 million of funding between 2020/21 and 2023/24 to eradicate dormitories and give patients the privacy of their own ensuite bedroom.

NHS England is taking forward a new Mental Health, Learning Disability and Autism Inpatient Quality Transformation Programme to support cultural change and a new bold, reimagined model of care for the future across all NHS-funded mental health, learning disability and autism inpatient settings. This programme will complement and further support our existing commitments to improve the quality of community care and reduce the need for inpatient care.