What is the Mental Health Act?
The Mental Health Act is the law in England and Wales which says when you can be detained (or sectioned) and receive mental health treatment against your will. Someone can be detained for their own safety, or to protect other people.
The Act was created 40 years ago. It desperately needed updating. So, the UK government set up an independent review panel to make recommendations for how to improve it. The panel reported in December 2018.
After several years, a bill to amend the Mental Health Act was finally passed by parliament in December 2025. It did not include all the recommendations made by the independent panel and by others, including Mind. But it will bring in some positive reforms.
What is going to change?
These are some of the key changes being made to the Mental Health Act:
These will be made mandatory for everyone who is sectioned. CTPs say how your needs will be met to help you towards recovery and discharge, how you and family/carer(s) have been involved, and why clinical decisions have been taken. This reform applies to England, as Wales already has statutory care and treatment plans under the Mental Health Measure.
These will be stricter and a person would have to pose a risk of serious harm to themselves or others to be sectioned.
The grounds for putting someone on a CTO will be stricter and will be the same as for detention, with the community clinician involved in decisions.
You'll be able to choose someone to be involved in decisions about your admission and care, instead of it being the ‘nearest relative.’
Your clinician will have to consider your wishes and feelings, help you to participate in treatment decisions, and consult those close to you. And, a clinician will need a compelling reason and second opinion to go ahead with a medication you refuse, whether you refuse at the time or in advance of being sectioned.
These will offer a way to set out your choices in advance while you are well, outlining your preferred treatments, medications and hospitals, or refusing particular treatments. They’ll have to be strongly considered by clinicians when making decisions about your treatment.
If you’re sectioned, you’ll get an advocate automatically, rather than having to ask for one.
If you’re a voluntary patient, you’ll be able to have an advocate, but not automatically - you’ll have to ask for one.
The advocates’ role will be expanded to help with involvement in care planning and decisions, and making complaints.
Changes to advocacy apply to England, as the Mental Health Measure already provides access to advocacy in Wales.
You’ll be able to appeal against your detention sooner than you are able to now.
You won’t be able to be detained for treatment (section 3) unless you have a mental health problem that needs hospital treatment. (This won't apply to people involved in criminal proceedings.) There are also changes aimed at improving inpatient and community support.
What happens next?
Most of the changes to the Mental Health Act won’t start for some years and it could be ten years before they are all implemented.
The Welsh government has already begun work on implementation.
A key next step is for the UK government to revise the code of practice for England and for the Welsh government to do the same for Wales. The codes set out how the act should be used. There should be public consultation on this.
There will also be regulations introduced to fill in some of the detail that’s not in the act and say when different measures come into force.
If you want to know what your rights are now, we've got information about your rights under the Mental Health Act 1983.
What does Mind think of the changes?
We welcome the positive changes but are disappointed that the reforms didn’t go further.
We wanted:
- Community treatment orders to be abolished. They don’t reduce readmissions. And they're disproportionately used on black people.
- People to have a right to assessment and treatment. This means they'd get the support they needed, when they needed it. This call was for England, as there are already rights to primary care assessments in Wales
- People to have a right to appeal treatment decisions they don’t agree with.
- Voluntary as well as detained patients to automatically get an advocate unless they don’t want one. People in mental health hospitals should have a right to culturally appropriate advocacy.
- A test for under 16s to check if they have the capacity to make decisions about their treatment. This would make sure young people have their voices heard and get extra safeguards if their choices are refused.
- Young people to be placed in appropriate settings. They shouldn't be in adult wards or hospitals far from home.
- A responsible person in every hospital to oversee action to tackle inequalities in how the act is used.
What is Mind doing?
We’ll influence the codes of practice as much as we can and promote opportunities for people to feed in directly.
And we’ll continue to call for safe, high quality inpatient and community support.
What happened in the campaign?
Mind has been campaigning for the reform of the Mental Health Act for many years, alongside lots of other organisations and campaigners. Mind campaigners made a real difference at every stage of the campaign, but this support was particularly valuable as the bill made its way through parliament.
- In March 2025, we brought artwork and poetry from people with lived experience of the Mental Health Act to the heart of Westminster with our exhibition, ‘The 54,000 People Behind the Mental Health Act’. Our campaigners sent over 1,208 messages to MPs encouraging them to attend the exhibition, read people’s stories, and have meaningful conversations with Mind staff. Over 40 MPs and Peers came to see the exhibition as a result.
- As the Bill progressed, our supporters kept the pressure on. At the committee stage, many MPs raised concerns about racial inequality in the Mental Health Act after 1,190 campaigners signed our open letter calling for this to be addressed.
- Over 2,000 campaigners emailed their MPs asking them to vote for amendments to help end racial inequalities and make the Act work better for young people. Together, we reached 84% of all MPs in the UK. Because of this, every amendment we recommended was put forward and debated in Parliament. Although the Speaker chose not to hold a vote on those amendments, we put these crucial issues firmly on MPs’ agendas.
We didn't get all the changes we wanted, but the UK government has said they will tackle racial inequalities and strengthen young people's rights in the documents that say how to implement the law. We’ll be keeping an eye on this process in 2026.
How you can help
Do you want to hear how you can help us influence the implementation of the Mental Health Act, and how you can support our other campaigns to improve mental health services?
Sign up to our campaigns mailing list to get involved, and help make a real difference.
“I love the fact that campaigning actually leads to results.”
- Ebony, Mind campaigner
