Mental Health Tribunal The first substantive provisions of the Mental Health Act 2025 came into force on 18 February 2026, and were the dominant talking point across mental health law practice through March. The most significant change empowers the Secretary of State and the Mental Health Tribunal to impose conditions amounting to a deprivation of liberty on conditionally discharged restricted patients — reversing the position established in “Secretary of State for Justice v MM” — where necessary to protect others from serious harm.
The reforms also expand tribunal application rights for conditionally discharged patients and introduce new automatic-referral duties. For psychiatrists providing expert evidence to the tribunal, the changes widen the questions on which their opinion will be sought: risk formulation, the necessity and proportionality of DOL conditions, and whether discharge would be “no less beneficial” than continued detention. Further tranches of the Act are expected to be commenced in stages over the coming period.
