National Audit Office
Mental health in prisons
Government does not know how many people in prison have a mental illness, how much it is spending on mental health in prisons or whether it is achieving its objectives. It is therefore hard to see how Government can be achieving value for money in its efforts to improve the mental health and well being of prisoners. In 2016 there …
Published 29 Jun 2017
Value for Money
Department of Health and Social Care; Ministry of Justice
Topics: Commercial and financial management, Commissioning services, Crime, justice and law, Health and social care
Summary
The NAO's wordsGovernment does not know how many people in prison have a mental illness, how much it is spending on mental health in prisons or whether it is achieving its objectives. It is therefore hard to see how Government can be achieving value for money in its efforts to improve the mental health and well being of prisoners. In 2016 there were 40,161 incidents of self-harm in prisons and 120 self-inflicted deaths.
Recommendations
No recommendations are indexed here. The report itself may contain some: see the report on nao.org.uk, linked above.
Public Accounts Committee follow-up 1 report
The Public Accounts Committee examined this NAO report and made its own recommendations. The government replies to those in Treasury Minutes.