Prisoners: Mental Illness

(asked on 26th October 2017) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of prisoners wait longer than the 14 day target for transfer to a secure hospital.


Answered by
Phillip Lee Portrait
Phillip Lee
This question was answered on 2nd November 2017

About 24% of prisoners transferred from prison to hospital since 2016, under sections 47 and 48 of the Mental Health Act 1983, waited longer than 14 days from the date the Ministry of Justice received two medical assessments indicating transfer was appropriate to the actual date of admission to hospital. The Ministry of Justice has a target of 24 hours within which to provide a transfer warrant, once both medical reports and all other relevant information is received. This target is met in 95% of cases.

These figures have been derived from an administrative IT system which, as with any large scale recording system, is subject to possible errors with data entry and processing. This figure may not agree with similar figures provided through NHS England since NHS England calculates waiting times from different transfer pathway stages. MoJ are working closely with NHS England to improve our joint understanding of measurement of waiting times.

We take the mental health of prisoners extremely seriously, which is why we have increased the support available to vulnerable offenders – especially during the first 24 hours in custody – and invested more in mental health awareness training for prison officers.

But we recognise that more can be done and continue to work in partnership with HMPPS, NHS England and Public Health England to improve mental health services for offenders at all points of the criminal justice system.

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