Foreword

Nobody who works in or writes about this area of the law can fail to acknowledge that we are experiencing a period of explosive change. Since the last issue of the Journal we have seen the publication of two new draft Bills, which together promise to change the shape of mental health care and services in the future. On 18th June 2004, the Mental Capacity Bill was published, reflecting many of the recommendations made by the Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Committee appointed last summer to consider the Mental Incapacity Bill 2003. More recently, on the 8th September, the new Mental Health Bill 2004 was finally published, and will also be subjected to pre-legislative scrutiny by an expert parliamentary committee which is due to report its findings by March 2005. Finally, this very week, the draft Code of Practice for the Mental Capacity Bill 2004 was announced by the Department of Constitutional Affairs.