Ms Fiona Coyle:

In the heads of the Bill, there are a number of areas of what we would call "coercive practice", such as practices of seclusion, mechanical restraint, physical restraint and the newly introduced separate category of chemical restraint, which we welcome. Currently, the Mental Health Commission monitors the use of these restrictive practices. We have seen some interesting and quite worrying trends over recent years in terms of the increase in the number of practices, such as in 2020 the increase in seclusion. Our policy commitment is there in that we are trying to move towards zero seclusion and zero restraint by 2030. We are urging that this legislation would go much further and beyond 2030. We should show ambition and set out in this legislation that we are moving towards zero seclusion and zero restraint. It is widely acknowledged that for staff and service users the use of such practices can be quite traumatic. There is a great deal of evidence and many really interesting international practices, such as we provided in our expert analysis, which show that with investment and the right approach we can, as a country, move away from any type of seclusion and restraint.