PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Electroconvulsive Therapy (30 October 2020)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the evidence given in the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review 2020 led by Baroness Cumberlege on the harms of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT); and if he will he make an assessment of the potential merits of initiating an independent review on how ECT is administered and monitored.

Asked by:
Dr Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour)

We have no plans for such an assessment. All recommendations of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review are being considered carefully. The Government will provide an update in due course.

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is tightly regulated under the Mental Health Act 1983 and generally can only be given when a patient consents. The Mental Health Act 1983: Code of Practice provides statutory guidance on the usage of ECT.

Sir Simon Wessely’s Independent Review of the Mental Health Act made 154 recommendations, including proposing further safeguards to strengthen a patients’ rights to refuse this treatment in advance. We have committed to publishing a White Paper which will set out the Government’s response to the Review, which we aim to publish by the end of the year.

Answered by:
Ms Nadine Dorries (Conservative)
6 January 2021