Section 1: Removal of categories of mental disorder

Mental Health Act 2007 · 2007 c. 12View on legislation.gov.uk

Part 1: Amendments to Mental Health Act 1983 — Chapter 1: Changes to key provisions

Section 1(2) of the 1983 Act (key definitions) is amended as set out in subsections (2) and (3).

For the definitions of “mental disorder” and “mentally disordered” substitute—

“mental disorder” means any disorder or disability of the mind; and “mentally disordered” shall be construed accordingly;

The following definitions are omitted—

those of “severe mental impairment” and “severely mentally impaired”,
those of “mental impairment” and “mentally impaired”, and
that of “psychopathic disorder”.

Schedule 1 (which contains further amendments to the 1983 Act and amendments to other Acts) has effect.

About this text

This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.