Scottish Mental Health Law Review consultation

Overview

This consultation paper outlines some of the proposals for change to the law put forward by the Executive Team of the Scottish Mental Health and Incapacity Law Review. They have been developed in partnership with people with lived experience, including unpaid carers, and mental health practitioners through a series of Advisory Groups and Reference Groups.

This consultation relates to all people who have been, or could in the future be, subjected to mental health legislation, their unpaid carers and families and all those who work in mental health, learning disability, autism, dementia, brain injury services and the legal profession.

Aims of Consultation

The aim of this public consultation is to seek views on the Review’s proposals for changes to mental health and incapacity legislation before a final report is sent to the Scottish Ministers by the end of September 2022.  This report will be published.

The consultation contains a number of questions that invite comment – including concerns and suggestions for improvement – on different aspects of the proposed recommendations.

Please follow these link to access complete consultation document:

• PDF version Scottish Mental Health Law Review Consultation
• HTML version Scottish Mental Health Law Review Consultation

Please follow this link for the easy read consultation Easy Read - Scottish Mental Health Law Review consultation

Responding to this Consultation

We are inviting responses to this consultation by 27 May 2022.

Handling your response

If you respond online, you will be directed to the ‘About You’ page before submitting your response. Please indicate how you wish your response to be handled and, in particular, whether you are content for your response to published. If you ask for your response not to be published, we will regard it as confidential, and we will treat it accordingly.

Next steps in the process

If you have given permission for your response to be made public, and after we have checked that they contain no potentially defamatory material, responses will be made available to the public at: www.smhlr.scot

If you respond online you will receive a copy of your response via email.

Following the closing date, all responses will be analysed and considered along with other available evidence to inform recommendations in our final report. Responses will be published where we have been given permission to do so.

We will send a final report to the Scottish Ministers by the end of September 2022. This report will be published. 

Why your views matter

The recommendations being consulted on could lead to a fundamental change in mental health and incapacity legislation, bringing it more in line with human rights law and the ambitions set out in the United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 

Your views will help refine or change these recommendations and allow the Review Executive team  to put together a final set of recommendations for the Scottish Government. It will then be up to Scottish Ministers to decide how many of the recommendations they act on, how they do this, and the timing of any changes to the law.

For more information about the Review Homepage | Scottish Mental Health Law Review

What happens next

If you have given permission for your response to be made public, and after we have checked that they contain no potentially defamatory material, responses will be made available to the public at: www.smhlr.scot

If you respond online you will receive a copy of your response via email.

Following the closing date, all responses will be analysed and considered along with other available evidence to inform recommendations in our final report. Responses will be published where we have been given permission to do so.

We will send a final report to the Scottish Ministers by the end of September 2022.  This report will be published.