When Theresa May became Prime Minister in July 2016, she made a speech on the steps of Downing Street in which she outlined a series of ‘burning injustices’ her administration would seek to tackle. Many were struck by the irony of this commitment to tackling inequality and disadvantages coming, as it did, from a senior member of the coalition and Conservative governments that since 2010 had introduced a series of policies which had targeted those living in poverty and the most vulnerable. The scandals of the revelation of the real impact of the ‘hostile environment’ created by May's Home Office and the appalling treatment of the Windrush generation lay ahead. In May 2017, May announced that a review would be undertaken of the ‘flawed’ Mental Health Act (MHA). In making the announcement she stated:

It was later announced that the MHA review would be chaired by an eminent psychiatrist, Sir Simon Wessely. The review was completed in December 2018 (Department of Health and Social Care, 2018). Its recommendations are discussed in the final chapter of this book. In his foreword to the final report, Sir Simon outlines the case for change. The increase in the number of detentions – formal admissions using the powers of the MHA – was one of the factors highlighted. This is not a new issue. The process and rates of detention under the MHA, coupled with the conditions on wards and patients’ negative experiences have been long standing issues. The review also examined an issue that has long been a scar on modern mental health services: over-representation of people from black and minority ethnic (BAME) groups among patients detained under the MHA.