MENTAL PATIENTS (RIGHT TO VOTE) (Hansard, 2 July 1980)

§ Mr. Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield, East)

I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to amend and repeal section 4(3) of the Representation of the People Act 1949 which prevents mental patients resident in psychiatric hospitals with no alternative electoral address from using the hospital for registration purposes. Under the present law informal or voluntary patients in mental hospitals are denied the right to vote, not because they are thought to be unfit to do so but because a mental hospital, unlike a general hospital, is not allowed to be used for electoral registration purposes. The problematic legislation is the 1949 Representation of the People Act, section 4(3) of which applies to A person who is a patient at any establishment maintained wholly or mainly for the reception and treatment of persons suffering from mental illness or other form of mental disorder. Under that section patients who, for various reasons, have no alternative address are denied the vote but patients who still have a home address can register at that home address.

The criterion is dependent not on mental condition but on individual circumstances. If a patient has a home to go to he has a vote. If he has lost that home, by one of the many unfortunate circumstances that mental patients face, such as the break-up of a marriage, his right to vote is lost. He loses that right for a reason other than his mental health. Patients who are domiciled in hospital because they have no other place to go lose their electoral rights.

A further anomaly lies in the present system. A homeless mental patient in a psychiatric unit of a district general hospital can use that hospital address for voting purposes. A patient suffering exactly the same condition in a psychiatric hospital cannot use that address. Two patients suffering the same illness are therefore granted different rights. Many mentally ill patients living in the psychiatric wings of general hospitals are far worse than some patients in so-called psychiatric hospitals.

Government figures estimate that about 130,000 people are disenfranchised be- 1540 cause of the present law. The 1973 Speaker's Conference on electoral reform recommended a repeal of the section, but successive Governments have failed to take action. The issue has a long history, under Governments of both parties, of postponement and inertia—most recently of inertia by the interdepartmental working party that has been established since 1974. Such Government delay and prevarication in dealing with the enfranchisement of the mentally ill illustrates the political powerlessness and social low standing of psychiatric patients as a group in the community.

This is an opportunity for the House to show that it believes that mental ill health is a fact of life. As many people will experience mental ill health as experience physical ill health and hospitalisation. My small Bill will be a step towards persuading men and women that they are not second- and third-class citizens and that they are not shut away and forgotten by the House and the people with power in government.

Similar issues have been raised and resolved in regard to residence at other institutions, such as the universities and geriatric and general hospitals, and in respect of members of the Armed Forces. The problem has been effectively solved in the United States and Ireland. There is no reason, legal or moral, why an insular minority should not improve its political and social position through the franchise. The franchise would help this large minority of people towards their rights and towards taking their place in society.

The problem was brought to my attention through a constituent who was disenfranchised at the last general election. He is a senior bank clerk, who had a mental breakdown. His marriage broke up. Because he was mentally ill for a time—but not unfit to vote—he lost his right to vote at the general election. That did not help him on the path to recovery. He was cross and angry that society should have treated him in that way.

I hope that this Bill will obtain the Government's favour and persuade them quickly to bring in an amendment to the existing law. I thank you for your patience, Mr. Speaker.