The mental health charity Rethink Mental Illness produced an excellent report last month, detailing its year-long struggle to find out what proportion of social care budgets is spent on mental health in different local authority areas.

As a charity which provides support and advice to tens of thousands of people suffering from mental illnesses, Rethink is a natural candidate to be one of community secretary Eric Pickles' ‘armchair auditors', keeping its beneficiaries informed of local decisions, and scrutinising local authorities to ensure they fulfill their obligations regarding mental health.