The Health Minister Edwina Hart has welcomed the passage of the Mental Health (Wales) Measure through the National Assembly for Wales with cross-party support. The Measure will now go forward for Royal Approval and will then become law.

The Health Minister said:

“This Measure represents the final fulfilment of the One Wales commitment on legislating on mental health and I welcome that all parties in the National Assembly have given it their support”

The Measure places a statutory duty on Health Boards and Local Authorities to deliver local primary mental health support services and ensures that all service users in secondary mental health services have a care coordinator and a care and treatment plan, as well requiring secondary mental health services to have in place arrangements to ensure the provision of timely access to assessment for previous service users, and making provision for independent mental health advocacy to be available to all patients in hospital.