Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people were transferred from prison to hospital under the Mental Health Act 1983 in (1) 2015; (2) 2016; and (3) 2017.

The total number of prisoners who have been transferred to a secure hospital under sections 47 or 48 of the Mental Health Act 1983 in 2015, 2016 and 2017 is set out below:

2015 2016 2017

Total 1,010 980 724

Data for 2017 represent number of transfers from 1 January 2017 to 30 September 2017.

The data are published annually on the gov.uk website under the Offender Management Statistics. The latest published data are up to December 2016. The figures for 2017 are taken directly from the Ministry of Justice’s case management system and will be subject to the appropriate checks and validation before eventual publication after December 2017.

The number of people who were transferred from prison to hospital under sections 47 and 48 of the Mental Health Act 1983 since 2015 who waited for a transfer for more than 14 days, one month, three months, six months and one year are set out in the table below. In order to answer the question, we have taken 1 month to equal 30 days. The time has been measured from the date at which the Ministry of Justice is provided with two medical assessments indicating transfer is appropriate, to the actual date of admission to hospital. The Ministry of Justice has a target of 24 hours within which to provide a transfer warrant, once both medical reports and all other relevant information is received. This target is met in 95% of cases.

This information is not published. The figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.

We take the mental health of prisoners extremely seriously, which is why we have increased the support available to vulnerable offenders - especially during the first 24 hours in custody - and invested more in mental health awareness training for prison officers.

But we recognise that more can be done and continue to work in partnership with HMPPS, NHS England and Public Health England to improve mental health services for offenders at all points of the criminal justice system.