A private member’s bill to ensure that police who are called to restrain patients at mental hospitals wear body cameras has passed through the Commons.



There had been fears that the bill – supported by the parents of a 21-year-old man who died after he was subject to a period of excessive and prolonged restraint – could be blocked by a Conservative filibuster, but it completed its third reading in about an hour on Friday morning with the parents, Aji and Conrad Lewis, watching in the public gallery.

When the mental health units (use of force) bill was previously discussed three weeks ago it ran out of parliamentary time after the Conservative Philip Davies spoke for two and a half hours.

The Lewises’ son Olaseni, or Seni, was 21 when he had a sudden and unexpected mental health episode in 2010. He went with his family on a voluntary basis to the Bethlem Royal hospital in Beckenham, south London. They left him there at 8.30pm and shortly afterwards he became agitated and was restrained face down by a group of police officers. He had a heart attack and died a few days later.



It took seven years for an inquest to be held, partly because there is no statutory requirement to do so for a death in a mental hospital. It concluded that 11 officers used “excessive force”. However, no criminal proceedings have been brought.

Speaking before the parliamentary debate on Friday, Aji Lewis accused Davies of “cruel” and “unnecessary” behaviour after he helped talk out the bill at the previous session. Alongside his fellow Conservative backbencher Christopher Chope, Davies is well known for sabotaging private members’ bills. On the same day as Davies filibustered the Lewis bill, Chope caused outrage by vetoing a bill that would have outlawed upskirting.

On Friday Davies told MPs he supported the principle of the bill. It requires police attending incidents in mental health units to wear body cameras to help standardise how such events are reported.

The bill was supported by the government. The health minister Jackie Doyle-Price said: “Physical restraint should only be used as a last resort and our guidance to the NHS is clear on this, which is why we are fully supporting the system changes the bill sets out to achieve.”