Mental Health Bill Report Stage: Amendment 41

Parliament defeated Amendment 41 to the Mental Health Bill on 14 October 2025 by 333 votes to 164. The amendment would have required that when a child under 16 is detained under the Mental Health Act, the person they nominate as their legal representative must hold parental responsibility, unless safeguarding concerns justified an exception. The government opposed it and the amendment fell at report stage. The vote concerns one of the Bill's central reforms: replacing the old "nearest relative" system with a patient-nominated person. Under the Bill as it stands, a child under 16 who is judged competent can nominate any adult to fill this role. The nominated person gains legal authority to object to treatment or discharge decisions. Amendment 41 sought to restrict that choice to adults with formal parental responsibility unless professionals identified safeguarding reasons to allow otherwise. The government's position, set out by Minister Stephen Kinnock, was that the amendment would wrongly block children from choosing step-parents or kinship carers, and that existing provisions already allow a nominated person to be overruled if they act against the child's best interests. The division split almost entirely along party lines. All 297 Labour MPs and 31 Labour and Co-operative MPs who voted opposed the amendment. All 90 voting Conservatives and all 62 voting Liberal Democrats supported it, producing an unusual cross-opposition alliance. Four Reform UK MPs and two Democratic Unionist Party MPs also voted aye. The amendment follows directly from Amendment 40, defeated on the same day by 339 to 163, which appears to have covered closely related ground. The Bill has since passed into law as the Mental Health Act 2025.