Paul was detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act. He was then moved into a private care home for after-care. The NHS and his local council together arranged for and paid for this after-care. In the care home, Paul was deprived of his liberty. He later died in the care home from pneumonia and intestinal issues related to a side effect of a medication he was taking. Paul’s family brought a case against both the care home and the NHS, saying they had breached his human rights. The court said that the care home was not carrying out a public function and so didn’t have a duty to protect Paul’s human rights. The court hasn’t yet said if the NHS breached Paul’s human rights.
Our work
The new Mental Health Act (England & Wales)
The new Mental Health Act passed into law on 18th December 2025. This marks the next step in the process of mental health legal reform, making a raft of changes to the Mental Health Act 1983 (England and Wales).
At BIHR, we have been working hard over the many years of Mental Health Act review and reform to ensure that human rights were at the centre of any changes and that the voices of people with lived experience were heard and valued throughout the process and in the new law.
The focus now is on implementing these changes - a process which will take place over a number of years. BIHR’s priority remains the same, ensuring that human rights and lived experience expertise are the foundations of how the new law is put into practice day-to-day.
Centring Lived Experience
We worked closely with Lived Experience Experts (people who work in or have accessed mental health services) to create clear, accessible explainers, submit evidence on the Bill, and advocate for changes to strengthen human rights protections.
We worked with RITES Committee member and Easy Read champion Lucy to make an Easy Read explainer on the Bill and what it could mean for human rights.
We co-produced a response to the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR's) call for evidence with people who have been detained in mental health hospitals, supported family members in hospital or worked in frontline mental health services. In our evidence submission, we urged the JCHR to make more time to listen to people with lived experience of mental health and human rights issues.
As a result, the JCHR decided to host a dedicated Lived Experience Roundtable on the Bill, and we supported members of our RITES Committee to attend and share their expertise directly with Parliamentarians.
We teamed up with the National Care Forum to make sure the providers' perspective was being heard and created briefings showing support for closing a loophole in human rights protections for people whose care has been outsourced to independent providers. We spoke to care providers and user-led services from across the UK about this issue and submitted evidence to the Mental Health Bill Committee with direct quotes from Scottish Care, Human Rights Consortium Scotland and Care Rights UK.
BIHR’s work to ensure stronger human rights protections in the new law
When the Bill was passing through the House of Lords, Baroness Keeley and Baroness Barker proposed an amendment (change) to the Mental Health Bill to include a clause explicitly saying that when services are providing after-care under the Mental Health Act, they are carrying out a public function and so have legal duties to uphold people’s human rights.
This amendment is particularly important because of a recent case concerning a man called Paul. Paul’s case shows that there was a potential loophole in the law where the State contracts out public services to private providers. This could make it harder for people like Paul to access their human rights.
We supported Baroness Barker and Baroness Keeley's amendment and encouraged the Joint Committee on Human Rights and members of the House of Lords to support it too.
The amendment was later withdrawn so the Government could introduce its own amendment on the same topic. When this happened, we supported the Government’s amendment too but said we thought this version was not as thorough as the original one and still left open potential loopholes.
We worked with National Care Forum as well as care providers from across the UK and user-led organisations to submit evidence to government departments and to the Mental Health Bill Committee urging them to pass the amendment to close the loophole exposed in Paul's case but to also consider wider protections.
On Thursday 19th June, the Government's amendment was agreed by the Bill Committee. Finally, on December 18th 2025, the new Mental Health Act became law, including the amendment – Clause 51 in the new law - supported by BIHR, our Lived Experience Experts and partner organisations.
BIHR’s Support Offers
Crucially, the work of Mental Health Act reform does not stop when the Bill passes, it has only just begun.
📖 We've written an Explainer on the five important changes to be aware of, and some human rights considerations. Knowledge is power and at BIHR we play a key role in translating legal changes into plain language offering free practical guides and resources. We published this on the day the Bill received Royal Assent, 18th December 2025.
🙋♀️ We’re hosting a Webinar for practitioners and policy professionals on 20th January 9.30 - 10.45, with guests sharing legal and lived experience perspectives on human rights approaches to implementing this new legislation. Come along to find out more about how we ensure human rights are the foundation of implementation.
🧑🏫 We're running a brand new 3-part online training programme for mental health workers, focused on embedding the Human Rights Act legal duties within community mental health services.
Read our Explainer - 5 key changes Come to our webinar Sign up to our 2026 Open Course
Related information
Experience-Informed Research
Our policy work is underpinned by people’s lived experience. One of the ways we do this is through experience-informed research on key areas the impact people's lives.
Experience-Informed Research
Our policy work is underpinned by people’s lived experience. One of the ways we do this is through experience-informed research on key areas the impact people's lives.
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