§ 2.35 p.m.
§ LORD WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the second Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
57 The Question was as follows:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many full-time medical officers in the Prison Service, who give treatment and also prepare psychiatric reports for courts, are qualified psychiatrists.
§ Lord BELSTEADMy Lords, 88 full-time prison medical officers are approved under the Mental Health Act 1959 "as having special experience in the diagnosis or treatment of mental disorder". Forty-five of these hold the Diploma in Psychological Medicine.
§ LORD WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, while thanking the noble Lord for his Answer, may I ask whether, when he uses the word "experience", it is being used in its narrow meaning, or means that they have had some formal training at some academic level?
§ LORD BELSTEADMy Lords, the statistics at January 31 of this year were that there were 97 full-time medical officers of whom 88 were approved by the local health authority under the Mental Health Act 1959 as having special experience in the diagnosis or treatment of mental disorder. The noble Lord may like to know that whereas the daily average population in Prison Service establishments rose from 29,600 in 1964 to 39,028 in 1970, the number of full-time medical officers and visiting psychotherapists approximately doubled and now stands at 147.
§ LORD WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, may I ask the noble Lord whether it is not a fact that of the 97 medical officers of health used in the psychiatric fields in our prisons less than half of them, only 45, possess the Diploma in Psychological Medicine?
§ LORD BELSTEADYes, my Lords; and also 40 have been awarded foundation fellowships by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.