Labour government’s changes to Mental Health law, 2024 and 2025
The Labour government wants to change the law on Mental Health. We explain what the changes mean and share our work.
The Labour government are planning to change the Mental Health law. We will be campaigning on this, to make sure the changes in the law are good changes for us.
The government says they want to give mental health patients stronger rights if they are in psychiatric hospital. This includes people with Learning Difficulties and Autistic people.
You can read the government’s Easy Read explanation of their Mental Health Bill.
We have written our own Easy Read explanation of the important changes the government say they will make to Mental Health law:
What changes are in the new Mental Health Bill?
We are concerned about the new law. We don’t think the new law supports our human rights enough. We can still be locked up even with the new law.
Read our initial concerns in Easy Read:
Why we need the new Mental Health Bill to support our rights
The new law has big changes around when we can be locked up in hospital, for assessment or for treatment.
We’ve written about these changes in Easy Read:
The new law will have big changes for care in our communities, including for the Integrated Care Boards who buy care services.
We’ve written about these changes in Easy Read:
What changes are in the new Mental Health Bill, for Integrated Care Boards (ICBs)?
It can be difficult to know the all differences between the law we have now, and the new law.
We have compared the big changes between the new law and the current law, in Easy Read:
The main differences between the Mental Health Bill 2025 and Mental Health Act 1983
We will keep working on the Mental Health Bill.
We will keep campaigning for change, so that we are not locked up in hospitals any more.
Please note: We are using words like ‘mental disorder’ and ‘Learning Disabilities’ on this page, because those are the words used in the law.
You might not use the same words to describe yourself.
