Restricted patients and detention in the community: The human rights implications of supervised discharge under the Mental Health Bill 2025

Abstract

This article critically analyses provisions in the Mental Health Bill 2025 that, if passed, will amend the Mental Health Act (MHA) 1983 to create a power for tribunals and the Justice Secretary to discharge restricted patients from hospital subject to conditions that deprive them of their liberty in the community. These provisions pose a threat to the human rights of patients who straddle the divide between the mental health and criminal justice systems. Furthermore, the provisions and the cases that preceded them expose the limits of policies of de-institutionalisation and official ambitions to move people with learning disabilities and autism spectrum disorder out of psychiatric hospitals and to support them to live in the community. Such seemingly progressive moves are tempered by a political drive to continue to control those who are thought to pose risks to others. As this article makes clear, detention in the community is not a lesser form of detention than detention in hospital, and it requires stringent safeguards in light of the UK's obligations under Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights. This article advances an alternative solution. Instead of creating a new, and complex, power that could lead to unlawful detentions in the community, suitable community-facing hospital accommodation for restricted patients subject to the same safeguards as hospital settings should be made available.