HC Deb 02 December 1987 vol 123 c586W
Mr. Butler

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of inmates of Her Majesty's prison Holloway are estimated to suffer from significant psychiatric problems.

Mr. John Patten

A census taken by prison medical officers at Holloway on 1 October 1986 of sentenced inmates serving six months and over showed that there were eight (7 per cent.) who were considered to require specialised therapeutic facilities for mental disorder. On the same date 22 unsentenced inmates, (9 per cent.) were considered to be suffering from mental disorder of a type or degree such that they would be detainable under the Mental Health Act 1983.

The latest returns of the number of inmates considered to be detainable under that Act show that on 31 March 1987 there were 13 (three sentenced and 10 unsentenced), or 3.5 per cent. of the total population at Holloway prison.