Mental Health Bill [Lords]

Iqbal Mohamed Excerpts

Report stage
Tuesday 14th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Iqbal Mohamed (Dewsbury and Batley) (Ind)]

This Bill gives us a real opportunity to modernise mental health care and make sure that patient choice and fairness are at the heart of mental health services, but to achieve that, we must first confront the deep inequalities that still shape people’s experience of mental health care, particularly among ethnic minority communities, those facing economic hardship and young people. Like so many issues, the intersectionality between those factors means that some groups face particular challenges in navigating and accessing the help they need.

In Dewsbury and Batley, we see the human reality of that inequality. Rates of depression stand at 15.4%, higher than the national average, and schizophrenia is also more common locally, compared with other constituencies in the UK. Across Yorkshire and the north, mental ill health is consistently higher than elsewhere in England. NHS data and mental health organisations are clear that both ethnic background and wealth disparity play a major role in that gap. People in my constituency are more likely to experience a mental health condition, yet the funding for research and specialised services in the north remains lower. That means less support, fewer beds, and fewer opportunities to provide specialist care.

That is why I strongly support new clause 13, which requires every hospital to have a named person responsible for overseeing race equality in how the Mental Health Act is applied. Black people are still four times more likely to be detained under the Act and eight times more likely to be placed on a community treatment order. Without accountability, those injustices will continue. I also support new clause 35, tabled by the hon. Member for Sheffield Central (Abtisam Mohamed), which seeks to put limits on CTOs.

We must also do far more for young people. The new clause proposed by the hon. Member for Hertford and Stortford (Josh Dean) powerfully argues for giving under-16s a clearer say in their own treatment decisions. A mother told me how both of her daughters needed mental health support, yet she had to seek private care because local services were overstretched and not up to standard. She pointed me to the Good Childhood Report, which shows that the wellbeing of children in the UK is among the lowest in Europe. I also support new clause 28, which aims urgently to address the need to stop children being placed in adult wards or sent miles away from home for treatment. I welcome the work that West Yorkshire ICB has done recently to expand mental health services for older people, but we must match that ambition for children and young people. If those commitments cannot all be secured through this Bill, they must be delivered in the forthcoming Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.