Patients who disregard their plan will be returned to hospital for compulsory

Patients who disregard their plan will be returned to hospital for compulsory treatment.But pressure groups for the mentally ill say compulsory treatment outside hospital is an unacceptable breach of civil liberties. Ministers believe there is a third way between asylums and community care.Under the Green Paper's proposals, patients discharged from hospital will be given an order specifying where they will live and a care plan similar to a statement of special needs for a child at school. Alan Milburn, the Secretary of State for Health, will publish proposals for a radical reform of the Mental Health Act 1993, which was an updated version of the 1959 Act. The proposals are the third plank of his strategy to modernise the NHS, after his announcement last month of new targets for tackling cancer and heart disease. At present, 99 per cent of mental patients are looked after in the community. A spokesman from the Department of Health said the new proposals were designed not to abandon community care but to end the "couldn't care less" approach, in which "dangerous patients were left to get on with it".

TOUGH NEW controls on potentially dangerous patients discharged from psychiatric hospitals are to be announced tomorrow in the biggest shake-up of mental health legislation for 40 years. "We can shoot his fox by allowing him to stand," one minister said. As an "insurance policy" in case Mr Livingstone wins, the Labour leadership will have the final say on the manifesto for the mayoral election.But both Mr Livingstone and Ms Jackson suggested yesterday they would not accept such a constraint. Mr Livingstone refused to drop his opposition to the Government's plan for a partial privatisation of the London Underground.Steve Richards,Review, page 3. If he were barred, Blair allies fear that Mr Livingstone would run as an independent. But Mr Dobson is set for overall victory due to his commanding lead among MPs, Euro-MPs and candidates, with 87-per-cent support to Mr Livingstone's 12 per cent.A Labour Party panel will interview the candidates tomorrow and is expected to shortlist Mr Livingstone, Mr Dobson and Ms Jackson. The two other sections represent the trade unions, London Labour MPs, Euro-MPs and Greater London Assembly candidates.The Brent East MP is well ahead in the union section, with 66 per cent of the votes to Mr Dobson's 32 per cent, according to Millbank's forecasts.

Mr Livingstone is set to win 43 per cent and Glenda Jackson 5 per cent. Mr Livingstone is ahead of Mr Dobson among Labour's 68,000 London members, with over 50 per cent of their votes to Mr Dobson's 38 per cent.But under the system chosen by Labour, party members have only a third of the votes in the college. The figures, seen by The Independent, predict that Mr Dobson, the candidate favoured by Mr Blair, is on course to win 52 per cent of the votes of the electoral college that will choose Labour's candidate next month. FRANK DOBSON will defeat Ken Livingstone to become Labour's candidate for mayor of London, according to secret figures compiled at Labour's Millbank headquarters. The forecast, which gives Mr Dobson a nine-point lead over his left-wing rival, is believed to have influenced Tony Blair's decision not to veto Mr Livingstone's attempt to be Labour's candidate in the election next May. Other arcade victims include one who broke his arm hitting a virtual punchbag, and another who fractured his upper arm in a strength game.Leading article,Review, page 3.