Source · Select Committees · Justice Committee
Recommendation 31
31
Deferred
Paragraph: 98
Establish viable alternatives to eliminate prison as a place of safety by March 2022.
Recommendation
The Government must, as a matter of urgency, see through its proposal to establish viable alternatives so that prisons are no longer used as a place of safety under the Mental Health Act 1983. We recommend that the Department of Health and Social Care and the Ministry of Justice set a target to eliminate use of prison in this way by 31 March 2022 and monitor progress monthly towards this target in each NHS region in the meantime.
Government Response Summary
The government confirms its commitment to ending the use of prison as a place of safety, but rejects the immediate target, instead establishing a working group to understand the complex issues and develop a cross-departmental response by September 2022.
Paragraph Reference:
98
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government
Deferred
The Government agreed that we should end the use of prison as a place of safety for individuals with severe mental health issues in the Mental Health Act White Paper and committed to legislating at the earliest possible opportunity through the proposed Mental Health Act Reform Bill. Since the factors which could lead to prison being used in this way are complex, including awareness of sentencers, a lack of robust and timely information sharing and a lack of available or accessible health resources, it is critical that we fully understand how, when and why this is happening before we can be sure of safely ending its use entirely. There are multiple scenarios in which prison could be used as a place of safety under the Mental Health Act, and the appropriate alternatives to prison will vary according to whether the individual is being remanded for assessment, remanded for treatment, or pending admission to hospital for treatment under the Mental Health Act 1983. Because of a lack of centralised recorded data, it is difficult to establish how frequently any of these scenarios are occurring. The MoJ, DHSC, HMPPS, HMCTS, NHS England and NHS Improvement are therefore working together to understand the scale of the issue. We (MoJ, DHSC, HMPPS, HMCTS, NHS England and NHS Improvement) are establishing a cross-departmental Working Group in order to identify and analyse relevant data sources and case examples to examine how often and in what circumstances this may be occurring. As part of this work, the MoJ will be undertaking judicial engagement to explore the issues behind their decision-making, what information was shared to support them with their decision-making, and at what stages in the criminal justice process they are seeing these issues arise. The aim is to review the available information and make initial recommendations by the end of March 2022. This work will enable an understanding of the scale of the issue, so that each department and agency is able to identify where changes are required and to work together to develop a cross-departmental response and agreement of priorities by September 2022.