Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Heath and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the capacity of the secure hospital system in England and Wales.

NHS England and NHS Improvement haveconducted a demand and capacity review of adult medium and low secure services to ensure they are in the right geographical location and delivering the right type of service in a timely way. This fed into the commitment to use National Health Service-led provider collaboratives to get appropriate, high quality secure care in place, which is being delivered as part of the implementation of the NHS Long Term Plan.

For high secure services, NHS England and NHS Improvement are in the early stages of a similar demand and capacity review as part of strategic commissioning work. This has been delayed due to the COVID-19 restrictions but is expected to inform the workplan for the 2021-26 high secure demand and capacity plan.

NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with stakeholders to explore and model what impact COVID-19 might have on future demand and capacity in the adult secure estate.