HC Deb 17 July 1973 vol 860 cc244-5
14. Mrs. Knight

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will investigate the efficiency of security arrangements for mental patients who might constitute a danger to the public if not kept under restraint.

Sir K. Joseph

A working party of officials was set up in 1971 to consider security arrangements in National Health Service psychiatric hospitals. Its report has just been made and I shall shortly be circulating it to regional hospital boards as a discussion document.

Mrs. Knight

Will my right hon. Friend note that some of us will await with great keenness his words on the report and the report itself? Is he aware that a man who was recently found guilty, not once but several times, of rape was sent to a mental hospital in Birmingham. escaped and raped other young girls? Will he consider the possibility of either stopping the open-door policy in mental homes, which some of us would regret, or not sending people guilty of rape and other violent crimes to places where they can simply walk out of the open door?

Sir K. Joseph

My hon. Friend has identified a dilemma, because the open-door policy is, on the whole, producing great benefit to the public. Nevertheless, there are problems of identifying those who are potentially dangerous and of providing suitable accommodation for them. The discussion document which I will send out puts on record the factors which must be weighed, and I hope that decisions can be made fairly soon.

Mr. Spearing

I recognise the need for extreme security at such institutions as Broadmoor and Rampton and the desirability of the open-door policy, but does the right hon. Gentleman agree that there is a prima facie case for the creation of an intermediate type of institution which would relieve the staff at institutions of the open-door type and relieve overcrowding in others?

Sir K. Joseph

I am sure that the hon. Gentleman is on the right lines. It might be that in each region there should be some wards which are suitable for patients who are not necessarily so dangerous that they should go to places like Broadmoor but too difficult to handle in the normal pyschiatric hospital.