Mentally Disordered Offenders: Police Custody

(asked on 9th February 2022) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the potential effect of improved healthcare support or earlier interventions for people with mental health conditions on demand on police resources.


Answered by
Kit Malthouse Portrait
Kit Malthouse
This question was answered on 24th February 2022

Improved healthcare support together with early intervention for people with mental health conditions is hugely important. Many police forces have local joint initiatives with health partners to respond to people with mental health issues. Liaison and Diversion services operate at police stations to identify and assess people with vulnerabilities and refer them into appropriate services to get help and support and, where appropriate, away from the criminal justice system altogether.

Street triage initiatives have been shown to make an immediate impact on the lives of people when they are particularly vulnerable. They support appropriate decision making in individual cases, assist with access to crisis care, and provide more timely support to health and social care services.

The NHS Long Term Plan will help improve delivery of prevention and intervention by investing an additional £2.3 billion by 2023/24. This should help enable further service expansion and faster access to community and crisis mental health services for both adults and children and young people.

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