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Mental Health Bill [HL]

I persuaded the noble Lord, Lord Rix, that he could escape from Wimbledon while his neighbours were taking children to the local school and, therefore, persuaded him into 9.30 meetings of the Joint Committee—a proposition he resisted strongly to begin with. I, too, was then treated to his knowledge—and that of Lord Carter and Mrs Browning—during the Joint Committee. As a result, I, too, support the amendment. My principal point has been made by the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay of Llandaff, and I will not repeat it, although important. However, I have a further question. Given that half the recommendation of the Joint Committee has been incorporated into Clause 2, what is meant by ““abnormally aggressive”” or ““seriously irresponsible”” conduct? Is this to be judged by objective criteria, as against a norm of the person on the Clapham omnibus—or of the responsible person on the Clapham omnibus—or by the criteria of a person suffering from the learning disability from which the individual suffers? My view is that this clause suffers from serious terminological inexactitude. That needs to be clarified before we can proceed further in supporting any proposals, if that is the position we reach as a result of our debate on this amendment.