Justice 2 Committee, 13 Nov 2002

Meeting date: Wednesday, November 13, 2002

Official Report 255KB pdf

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Mental Health (Scotland) Bill

Item 1 relates to the Mental Health (Scotland) Bill. As committee members know, we are a secondary committee for the purposes of the bill. We agreed to limit our consideration to its interaction with part 1 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill.

We have a note from our adviser, Professor Christopher Gane, which we discussed in private. We have to report on our considerations, and I invite members to raise any points that they wish to include in that report. We have a bit of leeway to discuss with the clerks the tight time scale for submitting our report, which is due this Friday. It is perhaps important to highlight now any issues that members feel ought to be addressed in our report.

We are in a position of some difficulty. The briefing session that we just held was certainly valuable, but, in some respects, it posed more questions than it answered. We are up against an extremely tight deadline. I note that officials will let us have an additional report, hopefully today or tomorrow, but, despite that, it is virtually impossible to give the matter measured consideration before the end of this week. I have some doubt as to whether we will be able to meet the deadline. Is there any way that it could be set back, even if only for one week?

The private briefing session that we just held was valuable, but, like Bill Aitken, I found myself more uncertain at the end of it than I was at the beginning—and I was already uncertain, to a degree, at the beginning. There is a clear interaction between the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill and the Mental Health (Scotland) Bill, and I do not think that our understanding of that interaction is complete. At the very least, we should report to the lead committee that uncertainty exists in our minds.

I am unclear as to how we could do the matter justice over the remainder of the week. Given what was said in the past 45 minutes, it might be possible for the clerks to prepare and e-mail some information for us to consider offline, for example, but that would not be a satisfactory way forward. We should ask for more time.

Bearing in mind what Stewart Stevenson and Bill Aitken have said, members should remember that the Justice 1 Committee will report on the main part of the Mental Health (Scotland) Bill, whereas our report on that bill will relate to its interaction with an important and complex part of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill.

It is unrealistic to think that we can meet Friday's deadline. We must take the time that we need to present a report, albeit that it will be late. We could flag up to the Health and Community Care Committee that we remain unconvinced that the bill as drafted will achieve the desired effect. At the least, we could give that committee notice that we are trying to test whether the intended effect will be brought about by the wording of the bill, which is why we are taking our time. Do members agree to allow me time to consider with the clerks how to return to the committee with the notes that members want and to arrange any further discussions or briefings that members think may be required?

Members indicated agreement.