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The government has bowed to pressure over its controversial plans to detain untreatable mentally ill people by agreeing extra safeguards on powers.
It had faced opposition from MPs and campaigners to its Mental Health Bill, which would allow people to be detained to protect themselves or the public.
It has agreed to a compromise proposal ensuring that any compulsory treatment must be of "therapeutic benefit".
The bill gained its third reading by 272 to 202 votes, a majority of 70.
It now returns to the House of Lords, where a string of defeats has already been inflicted on the government, to consider MPs' amendments.
Labour MP Chris Bryant suggested the "treatability test" compromise during a two-day Commons debate.
He said psychiatric units should not become "prisons by another name" and added that mentally ill people had the right to appropriate treatment.
"We cannot simply wash our hands of them. We cannot just be detaining people for the purpose of detaining them. There has to be some kind of therapeutic benefit," he said.
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Simon
Viewpoint Webteam
SOURCE: BBC News Online



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