Conditional discharge: a change to the law in England and Wales
The vast majority of the reforms in the Mental Health Act that received Royal Assent in December 2025 will not be implemented before 2028 at the earliest – but the law change on conditional discharge came into effect on 18 February.
The law change means that, unlike before, conditional discharge on restricted patients can amount to a deprivation of liberty.
The Government are referring to this as ‘supervised discharge’.
There is a cohort of restricted patients who could be managed in the community, but their risks are such that they would need to be deprived of their liberty for this to be done safely.
Some ten years ago, case law evolved and for a limited period the Tribunal could direct conditional discharges with conditions which created a deprivation of liberty.
The new provisions will allow conditions which deprive the patient of their liberty to be imposed if the Tribunal is satisfied that such conditions would be necessary for the protection of another person from serious harm if the patient were discharged from hospital and is also satisfied that for the patient to be discharged subject to those conditions would be no less beneficial to their mental health than for them to remain in hospital.
Further guidance on this topic can be found below: