Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many mental health inpatients have been placed in inappropriate out of area placements in the past 12 months.

The latest available information from November 2021 to October 2022 published by NHS Digital, indicates that 3,680 inappropriate out of area placements were started in adult mental health services covering the following three acute bed types, adult mental health care, older adult mental health care (organic and functional) and psychiatric intensive care unit, due to the unavailability of a bed. Data for July to October 2022 may have been affected by a cyber incident in a handful of data providers, but the impact of this is believed to be limited.