HC Deb 02 July 1984 vol 63 c55W
Mr. Terlezki

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the average length of sentence (a) actually served and (b) imposed upon persons sentenced to a determinate period of imprisonment who were released from Broadmoor over the most recent convenient period.

Mr. John Patten

Information is not available in the form requested. Admission to Broadmoor hospital is decided solely on the basis of whether the person concerned, being liable to detention under the terms of the Mental Health Act 1983, requires to be treated for his mental disorder in conditions of special security because of his dangerous, violent or criminal propensities. Patients admitted to the hospital fall into one of three main categories:

  1. (a.) Those admitted on a hospital order from a court.
  2. (b.) Those transferred from another hospital.
  3. (c.) Those transferred from prison, while serving a custodial sentence, by order of my right hon. and learned Friend the Home Secretary.

Those in the third category may be returned to prison to complete a sentence when they no longer require hospital treatment, or they may continue to be detained in the hospital because of their mental condition after the period of the prison sentence which they were serving has expired. Their period in Broadmoor hospital is solely for the purpose of receiving medical treatment and is not in any sense a custodial sentence.

Mr. Terlezki

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what proportion of persons released from Broadmoor over the most recent convenient period is known to have committed further offences of violence.

Mr. John Patten

Information about offences committed by former special hospital patients is not collected routinely. A research study covering the period up to the end of 1982 has shown that, of the 83 patients who left Broadmoor hospital during 1977, four—all males—who had committed violent offences prior to admission subsequently committed further offences of violence. One male patient who had committed nonviolent offences prior to admission subsequently committed an offence of violence; and three patients—two females and one male—whose original admissions to Broadmoor hospital had been under civil powers not involving any criminal offence committed offences of violence after leaving.