Mentally Disordered Offenders

(asked on 14th November 2017) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the backlog of cases being processed by the Mental Health Casework Section was in each year since 2009-10; and how long on average from the case being logged to the decision being made it took to clear cases on that backlog in each of those years.


Answered by
Phillip Lee Portrait
Phillip Lee
This question was answered on 20th November 2017

Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (formerly known as the National Offender Management Service) has not recorded centrally all the funding allocated to of the Mental Health Casework Section (MHCS) in each year since 2009/10. Information on the number of full time equivalent staff within this unit over those years is also not recorded centrally. There is no legal or business requirement for the Department to hold such information on a separate basis.

For 2017/18, the full time equivalent headcount for MHCS is 58, with 11 positions currently vacant, pending completion of the recruitment processes

The numbers of requests relating to restricted patients that were made to MHCS each year from 2009/10 are set out in the table below. It is not possible retrospectively to ascertain how many requests were completed in-year for each year. The number of current outstanding requests in 2017/18 is set out in the table below. These figures include requests received up to and including 14 November 2017. “Request” has been taken to mean any application for a decision by the Secretary of State under the Mental Health Act 1983, or application to or referral to a Tribunal, which requires the Secretary of State to submit a statement to the Tribunal. The figures given include requests that were made, but may have been withdrawn at a later stage, and include requests relating to discharged restricted patients, such as request to recall or request to vary or revoke conditions of discharge, as well as those relating to detained restricted patients.

Year

Number of Requests Made

Number of Requests Completed

Number of Requests Outstanding

2009-10

8,756

2010-11

9,073

2011-12

9,056

2012-13

10,653

2013-14

10,856

2014-15

11,364

2015-16

11,336

2016-17

11,938

2017-18 (up to 14/11/2017)

6,881

5,732

1,149*

*All requests received after 1/4/2017. This figure does not take into account active “critical” work which is being processed but may not have yet been completed and/or for which MHCS may be awaiting full information.

MHCS has not had a backlog of cases in significant numbers, nor for any significant periods of time, prior to June 2017. There are therefore no figures relating to backlogs of

cases in earlier years from 2009/10, as no such backlogs then existed.

The average number of calendar days between the case being logged to the final decision being made for restricted patients to (a) transfer to another hospital, (c) discharge (d) recall to hospital in each year since 2009/10 is set out in the table below. There is no power to (b) transfer to community care – a patient is either detained in hospital or discharged to the community. Recall decisions are made immediately, hence zero calendar days is recorded as the average. It should be noted that while a case is logged, it may not be ready for immediate consideration if there is further information required to enable a decision to be made.

Year

Hospital transfers

Conditional discharge

Absolute discharge

Recall

2009-10

36

33

41

0

2010-11

28

46

20

0

2011-12

27

42

22

0

2012-13

22

38

22

0

2013-14

23

43

42

0

2014-15

30

42

31

0

2015-16

28

37

21

0

2016-17

35

45

41

0

The number of (a) backlog cases and (b) critical work cases for restricted patients that have been cleared by the MHCS in each month since June 2017 is set out below. MHCS did not develop a backlog until June 2017, therefore the backlog recovery plan was not implemented until June 2017; consequently, no such figures are held prior to June 2017.

Jun 2017

Jul 2017

Aug 2017

Sep 2017

Oct 2017

Backlog cases

249

230

151

223

240

Critical work cases

424

472

433

358

441

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.

MHCS is dealing with a backlog of casework decisions and has been since June 2017. This situation is a direct result of staff vacancies which have proved difficult to fill, together with some long-term sickness absences which could not have been predicted. A recovery plan was developed in June 2017, and while MHCS has been able to continue to make critical decisions, such as prison transfers, within 24 hour targets, delays in other parts of the system are ongoing.

We take the mental health of restricted patients very seriously, and MHCS has been working closely with NHS colleagues nationally to mitigate the impact of the delays and to understand better areas where the NHS is most concerned. While opportunities are limited until the significant number of MHCS vacancies are filled and new post-holders fully trained, MHCS has managed to adjust its backlog recovery plan to expedite certain types of cases within the backlog. MHCS continues to identify ways in which it can safely reduce delays, while continuing to protect the public.

Reticulating Splines