Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, on how many occasions a Mental Health Act 1983 assessment requested on someone in custody in London took longer than 24 hours in each of the last five years.
The information requested is not held centrally.
The Policing and Crime Bill, currently before Parliament, will seek to reduce the maximum length of time a person can be detained under section 135 or 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983 from 72 to 24 hours, to make clear that people should be assessed as quickly as possible.