The Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 was passed by the Scottish Parliament on 20 March 2003 and came into force in October 2005. It was clear from the ongoing monitoring to which the Act was subject that there were some areas in which problems were being experienced. Accordingly, the Scottish Government decided to institute a limited review of the Act.
The review group’s terms of reference were to consider the operation of the processes in respect of the civil provisions of the Act in the context of the ten Millan Principles and advise on changes that should be made to improve the efficiency of the operation of the Act and the experience of patients; and to advise on other minor amendments to the Act to resolve technical or other issues; and to report to the Minister for Public Health with recommendations.
The formal consultation had three main strands to it: a consultation document was placed on the review group’s website at the beginning of August 2008, separate meetings were held with a number of stakeholder groups identified by the review group, and a series of consultation events.