2.The Act addresses a technical issue which has been identified with regard to the appointment criterion for medical members of the Mental Health Review Tribunal for Wales.
3.The medical members of this tribunal are required by paragraph 1 of Schedule 2 to the Mental Health Act 1983 to be “registered medical practitioners”. This expression is not defined in the Mental Health Act 1983. However, it is defined in Schedule 1 to the Interpretation Act 1978 as meaning “a fully registered person within the meaning of the Medical Act 1983 who holds a licence to practise under that Act”. Section 5 of the Interpretation Act 1978 requires that definition to be applied in the Mental Health Act 1983 unless a contrary intention appears.
4.The policy intention is that medical members should be required to be registered within the meaning of the Medical Act 1983 but with no requirement to hold a licence to practise under that Act.
5.The Welsh Government therefore introduced the Mental Health Review Tribunal for Wales (Membership) Bill to the Senedd to enable persons who are fully registered within the meaning of the Medical Act 1983 to be appointed as medical members of the Mental Health Review Tribunal for Wales, whether or not those persons hold licences to practise.
6.The Act also provides that where persons were appointed in the past as medical members but did not hold a licence to practice or allowed their licence to lapse, those appointments and those persons’ membership of the tribunal are valid.
7.Section 60(5)(a) of the Wales Act 2017 provides that the President of Welsh Tribunals is responsible for the maintenance of appropriate arrangements for, among other matters, the training of members of the Welsh tribunals within the resources made available by the Welsh Ministers. The Mental Health Review Tribunal for Wales (Membership) Act 2026 places a duty on the Welsh Ministers to carry out a review of the training arrangements which are maintained by the President of Welsh Tribunals under section 60(5)(a) of the Wales Act 2017 for medical members of the Mental Health Review Tribunal for Wales who do not hold licences to practise under the Medical Act 1983.
8.The Act then places a further duty on Welsh Ministers to publish a report of the review no later than 12 months after the day on which it comes into force (the Act came into force on 22 January 2026).
9.The policy intention is to ensure that adequate training arrangements are in place so that even though these medical members do not have a licence to practise, their professional knowledge is kept sufficiently up to date.
10.The effect of the Act will be to change the qualification requirements for medical members to enable individuals who are fully registered persons within the meaning of the Medical Act 1983 but who do not hold a current licence to practise under that Act to sit as medical members of the Mental Health Review Tribunal for Wales. By placing a duty on the Welsh Ministers to review the training arranged by the President of Welsh Tribunals for medical members without a licence to practise and to publish a report on that review, it aims to ensure that the provision is adequate to keep the professional knowledge of non-practising medical members up to date.
Summary and Policy Background