Sentencing remarks have been published after the guilty plea of Owen Herbert for manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, actual bodily harm and assault on an emergency worker.  Mr Herbert has been given a restricted hospital order (s37/41 of the Mental Health Act 1983) and remains in Broadmoor high security hospital, where he was […]

A report of the Joint Committee on the Mental Health Bill 2022 was published this week.  MPs and members of the Lords have jointly considered the draft Bill ahead of its parliamentary procedure and published a 164-page report.  As you can imagine, it’s thorough, although I did look for comment on a few things which […]

In several legal jurisdictions, the equivalent power to section 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983 involves the need for some kind of immediate threat or harm, perhaps involving disorder of some kind, albeit predicated on a person’s vulnerability due to mental illness.  Our nearest neighbours in the Republic of Ireland demonstrate this point well […]