Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of extending the Community Sentence Treatment Requirements pilot scheme.

The Ministry of Justice, Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), NHS England and Public Health England have jointly developed a Community Sentence Treatment Requirements protocol. This aims to increase the use of community sentences with treatment requirements for mental health and substance misuse issues. The protocol is currently being tested in five test bed sites within England (as health is devolved in Wales). These sites are Milton Keynes, Northampton, Birmingham, Sefton and Plymouth. The NHS Long Term Plan, published in January 2019 includes a commitment by NHS England to build on these pilots. Decisions on how the use of the protocol could be extended will be made in due course, based on the evaluation of the test bed sites.