Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Restricted Patients Statistics, England and Wales 2025, published 30 April 2026, what the mean and median length of time is between a patient becoming subject to a hospital order with restrictions under sections 37 and 41 of the Mental Health Act 1983, and their first discharge, for the latest year for which data is available.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
For restricted patients conditionally discharged for the first time in 2025, it took a mean of 8 years and a median of 6 years from when they became subject to a hospital order with restrictions under sections 37 and 41 of the Mental Health Act 1983.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many offenders were sentenced to a hospital and limitation direction under section 45A of the Mental Health Act 1983 in each of the last five calendar years.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Over the last five calendar years, 90 total individuals received a disposal with a hospital and limitation direction under section 45A of the Mental Health Act 1983 (the Act).
Year | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
Number of s45A disposals | 18 | 20 | 20 | 16 | 16 |
This information is published annually in April as part of the Restricted Patient Statistics.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the oral contribution of the Justice Secretary in the debate on the Independent Sentencing Review on 22 May 2025, whether he plans to continue to explore mandating medication to manage problematic sexual arousal.
Answered by Jake Richards - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Medication to Manage Problematic Sexual Arousal (MMPSA) forms part of our wider response to ensure people convicted of sexual offences are robustly managed. Work is underway to increase the use of MMPSA for sex offenders by expanding the existing feasibility pilot in the Southwest to two additional regions, which will see the service extend from four to 20 prisons as a first step.
Alongside the expansion of the pilot, we are working closely with experts to ensure all future decisions are based on strong evidence which prioritises public protection, including through our collaboration with Nottingham Trent University to conduct a Randomised Controlled Trial to understand the effectiveness of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (one of the medications used) in managing problematic sexual behaviours.
As the evidence of impact builds, we will continue to review options for increasing the use of MMPSA, including whether to mandate this treatment in future.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the total operating cost to HM Prison and Probation Service of running Approved Premises was in each of the last five financial years.
Answered by Jake Richards - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The table below shows the direct operating costs and total costs of running Approved Premises in England and Wales in each of the last five financial years.
Financial Year | Direct Costs (£m) | Total Costs (£m) |
2020/21 | 60.5 | 91.0 |
2021/22 | 75.8 | 108.8 |
2022/23 | 78.7 | 115.1 |
2023/24 | 85.1 | 127.7 |
2024/25 | 90.8 | 134.9 |
Total costs include direct operating costs together with estates costs and corporate support cost recharges. Figures are rounded to the nearest £0.1 million.
Data for 2025/26 are currently being compiled and quality assured and are therefore not yet available.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were resident in Approved Premises in England and Wales on the most recent date for which data is available, and in each of the last five years.
Answered by Jake Richards - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The information requested, which has not previously been published, will be included in the next edition of Offender Accommodation Outcome Statistics, which is due for publication on 30 July. It will be available at the following link: Offender Accommodation Outcome Statistics - GOV.UK
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to Table 8 of the Restricted Patients Statistics, England and Wales, 2025 release, published on 30 April 2026, of the 297 restricted patients recalled to hospital following conditional discharge, how many had been conditionally discharged by (a) the Secretary of State and (b) a Tribunal.
Answered by Jake Richards - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Of the 297 recalls of restricted patients to hospital following conditional discharge published in Table 7 (not Table 8), (a) 66 were discharged by the Secretary of State and (b) 231 by the First-tier Tribunal (Mental Health).
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the answer of 11 June 2026 to Question 7174, how many employees in HMPPS under the Occupational Psychologist profession are i) psychology administrators and ii) groupworkers.
Answered by Jake Richards - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
HM Prison & Probation Service currently employs 69 psychology administrators, including 11 sandwich student placements, and 384 groupworkers.
These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large-scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
For the purpose of the annual Civil Service employment statistics, both groups are currently categorised under the Government’s ‘Occupational Psychologist’ profession.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the answer of 11 June to Question 7174, how many employees in HMPPS under the Occupational Psychologist profession are i) trainee psychologists and ii) treatment managers.
Answered by Jake Richards - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
HM Prison & Probation Service currently employs 190 trainee forensic psychologists, and 130 treatment managers. For the purpose of the annual Civil Service employment statistics, both groups are currently categorised under the Government’s ‘Occupational Psychologist’ profession.
Categorisation of the psychologist group is being reviewed, ahead of the next publication, which is due at the at the end of July.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Answer of 4 June 2026 to Question 4454, how many employees in HMPPS are under the Government's "Occupational Psychologist" profession, broken down into (a) forensic psychologists and (b) non-forensic psychologists.
Answered by Jake Richards - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
A range of psychology-related occupations are categorised under the “occupational psychologist” profession in official statistics. As of 8 June 2026, 496 registered psychologists were employed by HM Prison & Probation Service. 490 of these (99%) are forensic psychologists. The other groups in the occupational psychologist category are: trainee psychologists (all of whom are training to be forensic psychologists); groupworkers; treatment managers; and psychology administrators.
These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large-scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many offenders had their country of birth recorded as i) UK, ii) any non-UK and iii) not known for offences of (a) violence against the person, (b) sexual offences, (c) robbery, (d) theft offences, (e) criminal damage and arson, (f) drug offences, (g) possession of weapons, (h) public order offences, (i) miscellaneous crimes against society, (j) fraud offences, (k) summary non-motoring, (l) summary motoring, (m) offence not recorded and n) all offences in each quarter since Q1 2017.
Answered by Jake Richards - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on convictions for a wide range of offences, in the Outcomes by Offences data tool, that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics.