Speeches made during Parliamentary debates are recorded in Hansard. For ease of browsing we have grouped debates into individual, departmental and legislative categories.
These initiatives were driven by Lord Patel of Bradford, and are more likely to reflect personal policy preferences.
Lord Patel of Bradford has not introduced any legislation before Parliament
Lord Patel of Bradford has not co-sponsored any Bills in the current parliamentary sitting
The diagnosis coding scheme used in the Emergency Care Data Set does not uniquely identify parasuicide.
The following table shows data on accident and emergency (A&E) attendances with a primary diagnosis of overdose, by commissioning region, April - September 2020.
Commissioning region | Attendances |
London | 4,955 |
South West | 6,710 |
South East | 8,040 |
Midlands | 11,220 |
East of England | 5,895 |
North West | 7,820 |
North East and Yorkshire | 10,825 |
Unknown | 10 |
England | 55,473 |
It should be noted that this is not a count of patients as an individual may have attended an A&E department in any given period.
Prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) planned the frequency of routine inspections based on ratings, whilst retaining the ability to inspect at any time in response to risk. However, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the CQC paused routine inspections and adapted its regulatory model by using an intelligence driven approach, focusing on services where risk to service users is greatest. This approach will continue to develop as the CQC learns from the experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On 4 June Public Health England updated guidance on the management of staff and exposed patients or residents in health and social care settings to reflect NHS Test and Trace.
This guidance outlines that if a health or care worker has had close recent contact with someone who has COVID-19, healthcare workers must self-isolate if the NHS Test and Trace service advises the individual to do so. If contacted after a previous period of isolation, they would be expected to isolate again. Close contact excludes circumstances where personal protective equipment is being worn in accordance with current guidance on infection, prevention and control.
The COVID-19: management of staff and exposed patients or residents in health and social care settings guidance was first published on 4 April in an online only format on GOV.UK.
Health Needs Assessments are undertaken for each prison to understand what the healthcare needs are for that particular prison population. Mental health services within each prison will be commissioned based on the findings of this assessment and will therefore be different for each prison.
Quality monitoring of NHS England and NHS Improvement commissioned healthcare services in prisons is undertaken by the seven regional commissioning teams through their local contract quality and performance arrangements. National quality reporting requirements have been developed to provide a consistent set of quality indicators for local monitoring.
As of 11 May, 78 prisoners have been released early; 52 were released as part of the End of Custody Temporary Release (ECTR) scheme, and 26 were released on compassionate grounds.
The ECTR scheme is aimed at low-risk offenders approaching the end of their sentence and therefore will include prisoners convicted of some, but not all, non-violent and petty crimes. The eligible offences have been chosen to strike the right balance between protecting the public and reducing transmission in prisons.
Releases are just one part of a wider strategy to create headroom, including by increasing the capacity of the existing prison estate. Modelling suggests that the headroom reduction required to implement compartmentalisation of prisons as a control on the spread of the virus is around 5,500. We are on track to achieving this target.
We have no plans to end short term prison sentences. Sentencing is a matter for our independent courts, taking into account the circumstances of each case and following any relevant sentencing guidelines issued by the Sentencing Council. A custodial sentence should always be a last resort.
Elderly and acutely medically vulnerable prisoners who have been thoroughly risk-assessed are in scope for early release on compassionate grounds.
The Government publishes quarterly statistics on self-harm in prison - the latest version provides figures up to September 2019. We also publish annual death in custody statistics, all of which are available at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/safety-in-custody-statistics.
There were 84 self-inflicted deaths in custody between Jan to Dec 2019, of which all 84 were in adult prisons.
There were 10,651 individuals self-harming in custody between Jan to Sept 2019, of which 10,421 were in adult prisons.
The Ministry of Justice cannot provide the information on how many of these individuals had a mental health problem as we do not hold clinical data.