After 40 years of campaigning, the Mental Health Act has finally been reformed for the 21st century. This is a major step forward, but there is more work to be done.
In December 2025, the Mental Health Bill received Royal Assent, the final step in the parliamentary process which means it is now law. This is a historic campaign win. Thank you to everyone who stood alongside us, spoke out, and helped push for a Mental Health Act rooted in dignity, compassion, and respect. By sharing your stories and challenging injustice, you have made this change possible.
The new Act modernises previously outdated laws that dictate what happens when someone is detained under the Mental Health Act - laws that for decades have stripped people of choice, dignity and control at the most vulnerable moments of their lives.
Moving forwards, our immediate priority is to shape the new Code of Practice, the guidance that will determine how the new Mental Health Act works in practice, in hospitals, wards and communities across the country. This is where rights on paper must become rights in practice.
What’s in the new Mental Health Act?
The new Mental Health Act aims to put choice, dignity and respect at the heart of compulsory care. It gives people more say in decisions about their treatment, limits restrictions to when they are absolutely necessary, ensures that compulsory care delivers genuine therapeutic benefit, and requires services to treat people as individuals. This includes respecting their identity, values, culture and lived experience.
One of the most significant changes is the introduction of Advance Choice Documents, allowing people to set out their treatment preferences while they are well, so these can guide their care if they become unwell in the future. Another major change is replacing the outdated “nearest relative” with a chosen Nominated Person, which can be selected by an individual at any time when they have the capacity to do so. This has been a long-standing campaign demand as it will give people real control over who supports and advocates for them when they are detained.
Other changes include:
- More frequent access to Mental Health Tribunals
- New statutory care and treatment plans
- Expanded access to Independent Mental Health Advocates
- Higher thresholds for detention, and an end to police cells and prisons being used as places of safety
- A new 28-day limit will apply when transferring people from prison to hospital for mental health treatment.
What was wrong with the old Mental Health Act?
The old Mental Health Act (1983) was designed for a different era, when institutional care dominated and people had little say in their treatment. It failed to reflect modern understandings of mental health, human rights or compassionate care.
The Act has also contributed to deep inequalities. For example, Black men are four times more likely to be detained and eight times more likely to be placed on Community Treatment Orders, subjecting them to prolonged compulsory control. Safeguards were weak, there was limited accountability, and the law didn’t encourage community support, crisis alternatives, or prevention.
Too often, people were detained simply because services were overstretched and the law offered few other options.
What are the remaining concerns?
There remain significant concerns about how well the new Act will work in practice. Much depends on services having enough staff, resources and community alternatives, without which stronger legal rights may not translate into real change.
Rethink wants all patients detained under the Mental Health Act to have equal access to advocacy and Mental Health Tribunals, no matter what part of the Act they are detained under. There will be differences for people involved in criminal proceedings, raising concerns about racial inequalities. People from racialised communities are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system, detained under the Act and likely to have more negative experiences when detained.
Get involved!
This win took decades of campaigning, but our work is not done. We will keep pushing for a future where mental health care is humane, empowering and truly centred on the people it exists to serve.
If you want to join the movement for change, you can sign up to be a campaigner today! It only takes a few minutes to share your details.