The government has watered down its plans to allow the enforced treatment of potentially dangerous mental health patients.

The long-awaited re-draft of the Mental Health Bill, released on Wednesday, sets stricter criteria on which patients can be detained.

Government Response: Department of Health

Rosie Winterton, health minister, said: "The revised Bill represents the first major overhaul of the legislation since the 1950s and is an integral part of the government's wider strategy to improve mental health services for all; reflecting developments in human rights law and providing a legal framework in line with modern services and treatments.

"We have held extensive discussions with stakeholders since we published a draft Bill for consultation in 2002 and we believe that we now have a Bill that puts a new focus on the individual, allowing compulsory powers to be used in ways that fit with patients' changing needs.

"One of the fundamental aims of the Bill is to help make community care work for the people who need it most. Patients in the community who are ill and vulnerable or at risk will now be able to get the treatment they need.

"Safeguards for patients will also be greatly strengthened with choice of representative, access to advocacy and all use of compulsory treatment beyond 28 days having to be authorised by a new independent Mental Health Tribunal.

"People will only be subject to treatment under the Bill if they are at risk of harm to themselves or others.

"The bill means that the small minority of people with mental health problems who need to be treated against their wishes, normally for their protection but occasionally to protect the public, will get the right treatment at the right time.

"To make sure we get the legislation right we have asked a Joint Parliamentary Committee to scrutinise the draft Bill, and we look forward to receiving their report."

Party Response: Liberal Democrats

Paul Burstow MP, Liberal Democrat health spokesman, said: "For the Mental Health Bill to work, the government must have made changes to their earlier extreme and draconian Draft Bill.

"A new Mental Health Act is desperately needed, but it must be a law to protect and improve services for patients, not a means to demonise those with mental health problems."

Party Response: Conservative

Tim Loughton, shadow health minister said: "Everyone's liberty is still at risk by the way the legislation is framed. The government have still failed to grasp that mental illness is a medical condition requiring treatment like any other physical problem rather than a criminal offence demanding incarceration.

"Compulsion should be a means of last resort, and we fear that many people with mental health problems will still be deterred from seeking treatment for fear of being subjected to compulsory treatment or detention."

Stakeholder Response: SANE

Marjorie Wallace SANE’s chief executive, , said: "We have long campaigned for reforms to mental health laws so that they better protect both the individual who experiences mental illness and the interests of the families, professionals and the public.

"But our mental health services in many places appear to be facing breakdown, with a chronic shortage of doctors, nurses and skilled front-line staff, squalid and overcrowded wards, and too few supervised places in the community.

"Despite all the government’s recent efforts, we will not be able to provide the essential care and treatment for those whose freedoms we may limit.

"The emphasis on compulsion should be on the government to fund the ‘safe, sound and supportive’ mental health services they promised when they came to power and made mental health a priority. Only if new laws are backed by improved services can they lead to compassionate care rather than increased fear and stigma.

"A major concern remains that in situations of crisis, families and carers may still be left to take responsibility without being given rights to vital information that could prevent unnecessary suffering or tragedy."

Stakeholder Response: Depression Alliance

Jim Thomson, chief executive of the Depression Alliance, said: "The new Draft Mental Health Bill is a piece of public order legislation - feeding on largely media-generated fear and prejudice about people with mental health problems 'at large', instead of a piece of legislation providing the framework for services for the tens of thousands of people experiencing the nightmare of mental health service provision in the NHS.

"It is yet another piece of public order legislation dressed-up as health legislation, with a few token concessions to the 2,000 damning indictments of the original draft, which does not begin to address the issues.

"For example, a definition of what is meant by "psychological dysfunction arising from any disorder of the mind or brain" might be a start, if government plans to defend the wholesale locking-up and enforced treatment of individuals on the say-so of (also unspecified) 'health professionals'.

"Left undefined, that defence will be mounted in the Courts, at the taxpayer’ s expense. In the coming days we will be working in partnership with other organisations and members of the Mental Health Alliance to discuss a formal response to the bill."