Reform the Mental Health Act to remove the detention of autistic people

Closed 160 signatures

What the petition asks

The Government has promised to reform the Mental Health Act; we feel they have failed to do so. Meanwhile, autistic people have been forcibly detained and may spend years in unnecessary restraints, over medicated and isolated. We want the Government to release them into residential homes.

We believe that in Britain, we pride ourselves on our values and our freedom. Yet we feel we do not see freedom for the disabled and mentally ill. We believe autistic people are not mentally ill and that the Mental Health Act should never have applied to autistic people in the first place. We believe support for autism has been badly underfunded and mischaracterised. We believe locking them away doesn’t change that they are there, and that they need real homes and support.

Timeline

22 Sep 2025	Petition opened for signatures
22 Mar 2026	Closed to new signatures

Key facts

Signatures 160

Status Closed

Department Department of Health and Social Care

Opened 22 Sep 2025

Closed 22 Mar 2026

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