§ Mr. AshleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will issue guidance to chief constables that the police should use cautions more widely when dealing with mentally disturbed offenders.
§ Mr. Peter LloydA forthcoming circular on provision for mentally disordered offenders will emphasise the need to divert such offenders from the formal criminal justice system wherever possible. Cautioning is included among the recommended methods of diverting mentally disturbed offenders from the criminal justice system, the importance of which is emphasised in the circular.
§ Mr. AshleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he is taking to facilitate the transfer of mentally ill prisoners from prisons to mental hospitals.
§ Mr. WaddingtonThe prime consideration is to seek to avoid mentally ill people unnecessarily being sent to prison in the first place. The revised Home Office booklet "The Sentence of the Court" and a circular to be issued soon to the police and probation services as well as the courts have the aim of encouraging the diversion of mentally disordered offenders into the care of the health or social services.
The recommendations of the working group of Home Office and Department of Health officials on mentally disordered offenders in the prison system, a copy of whose report is in the Library, include measures designed to facilitate transfer to hospital and these have been brought to the attention of prison medical officers. Consolidated guidance on transfer procedures under the provisions of the Mental Health Act 1983 is to be issued soon to the prison medical service in conjunction with a review of the standing order on health care. This guidance emphasises the need for action to be initiated promptly, including arrangements for a consultant to make an assessment visit, when it is thought that a prisoner's transfer to hospital may be warranted.
The number of mentally disordered prisoners including those who were mentally ill transferred to hospital under section 47 or 48 of the Mental Health Act 1983 has doubled over the last six years.
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§ Mr. AshleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if there has been an increase or decrease in the number of psychiatric referrals of prison inmates in the last two years.
§ Mr. WaddingtonThe number of inmates referred to visiting or consultant psychiatrists rose from 12,465 in 1986–87 to 16,937 in 1988–89. That represents an increase of 36 per cent.
§ Mr. AshleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is his estimate of the number of mentally ill people who are in prison.
§ Mr. WaddingtonI refer the right hon. Member to the reply given to a question from the hon. Member for St. Helens, South (Mr. Bermingham) on 5 July at columns639–40.