Policy paper
Mental Health Act 2025: easy read
Changes to the law that tells people what to do if they need to stay in hospital after a mental health crisis.
Applies to England and Wales
Documents
Details
We want to make mental health care better for people.
The government has changed the law called the Mental Health Act. We decided to make changes to the law after there was a big review.
We want to make changes so people do not stay in hospital unless they need to. We also want the changes to stop people being taken to a police or prison cell when waiting for care and treatment.
We have written these changes in a new act, the Mental Health Act 2025.
Updates to this page
Published 8 January 2026