Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what representations he has received from people who have previously been sectioned under the Mental Health Act 1983.

Representations received from people who have previously been sectioned under the Mental Health Act 1983 have been used to modernise the Mental Health Act, to give patients greater choice, autonomy, enhanced rights and support, and to ensure that everyone is treated with dignity and respect throughout treatment.

The Mental Health Bill has been developed with input from those with lived experience from the outset. This legislation has been informed by an Independent Review into the Mental Health Act, and a public consultation on the Reforming the Mental Health Act White Paper. The public consultation received 1,119 individual responses, a significant proportion of which said that they had experience of contact with mental health services, detention under the act, and/or were a carer for someone under the act.