Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 9
9
Slow progress on data sharing delays essential substance misuse support for prison leavers.
Conclusion
In 2017 this Committee recommended that HMPPS and NHS England (NHSE) improve information-sharing arrangements between health, prison and probation staff following concerns that healthcare records do not follow patients as they enter or leave prisons.18 The NAO found that HMPPS and NHSE have been slow to improve the collection and sharing of prison leavers’ data, limiting their ability to provide appropriate support and monitor outcomes.19 The NHS’s ‘informed consent’ approach to managing patient data means prison and probation staff have not necessarily known whether someone has been referred for drug treatment on release. HMPPS told us that its Probation Notification and Actioning Project (PNAP), which aims to support effective handover between prisons and probation on treatment requirements, will be “game-changing” in giving probation staff the information they need to support prison leavers with substance misuse needs.20 HMPPS aimed to launch the service across England in April 2022 but was significantly delayed due to lengthy negotiations with health commissioners on the legal basis of sharing prison leavers’ health information without their consent.21 HMPPS now expects to roll PNAP out to all regions of England and Wales by the end of March 2024.22