Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans his Department has for the Peaks Unit at Rampton Hospital.

NHS England is the commissioner of all high secure services in England, across the three high security hospitals, which includes Rampton Hospital. Future commissioning plans will be informed by a capacity assessment that was undertaken in 2014 in consultation with the three hospitals. NHS England fully expects to continue commissioning high secure services in the Peaks Unit.

The only likely change to future commissioning arrangements at the Peaks Unit will involve patients who are being treated in a pilot service for offenders who meet the criteria for Dangerous and Severe Personality Disorder (DSPD). In 2011 the Government consulted on proposals to re-shape services for offenders who met the criteria for DSPD. In 2014 NHS England formally notified Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust of its intention to decommission the DSPD service in Rampton Hospital’s Peaks Unit.

NHS England and the Trust are currently in discussions about the process and timescale for decommissioning. Current patients will move to the most appropriate alternative treatment setting, taking into account their own particular needs and advice received from the clinicians who are caring for them. Some patients will continue to require hospital treatment in a high security hospital.