Alternatives to Prison
(asked on 23rd February 2018) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of (a) community sentences and (b) suspended prison sentences included a Mental Health Treatment Requirement in each year since 2010.
The table below shows the proportion of offenders starting (a) community orders or (b) suspended sentence orders under probation supervision in each year since 2010 where a mental health treatment requirement (MHTR) was attached to the order. These figures cover both England and Wales.
| Community order | Suspended sentence order |
Year |
| |
2010 | 0.6% | 0.5% |
2011 | 0.5% | 0.5% |
2012 | 0.5% | 0.4% |
2013 | 0.6% | 0.5% |
2014 | 0.7% | 0.6% |
2015 | 0.5% | 0.5% |
2016 | 0.4% | 0.6% |
Working with the Department for Health and Social Care, NHS England and Public Health England, we are developing a Community Sentence Treatment Requirement ‘Protocol’ that will set out what is expected from all agencies involved and improve access to mental health and substance misuse services for offenders who need them. This includes a new maximum waiting time for court ordered treatment which is in line with waiting times for the general population. It also includes a new single point of contact within local mental health and substance misuse services.
We are going to test the Protocol in a number of areas to make sure that it works and offers people the right support to end the cycle of reoffending.
Health is a devolved matter in Wales. The goal to improve the use of MHTRs there is captured in the Welsh Government’s “Together for Mental Health” delivery plan.