HC Deb 01 July 1996 vol 280 cc308-9W
Mr. Cann

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what action he has taken since March to review the confidentiality of prison medical records. [34605]

Miss Widdecombe

The Prison Service accepted the recommendation of the independent inquiry report into the case of Jason Mitchell that the question of confidentiality of prison medical records should be fully reviewed. It will, as that report recommended, shortly be consulting the General Medical Council and other professional bodies for their views.

Mr. Cann

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what action his Department has taken since March in respect of the role of C3 division acting in relation to information relating to(a) patients' index offences, (b) ensuring that the procedures of C3 division are in line with the Home Office practice in relation to discretionary lifer powers, (c) reviewing the notes for guidance of social supervisors to take account of potential conflicts in the roles of social workers arising from changes in community care, mental health and criminal justice legislation and (d) updating the case worker guide to require information from all who will bear responsibility for patients after care. [34631]

Miss Widdecombe

Since March, the role of the mental health unit—formerly C3 division—of the Home Office in these four areas of its caseworking functions in respect of restricted patients under the Mental Health Act 1983 has been reviewed. We have concluded that the proposal that the mental health unit should act as a repository of information about patients' index offences should be addressed as part of a wider review of risk assessment already under way. No changes in the mental health unit's practices in relation to the other elements of the question are proposed. Comparison between mental health review tribunals and discretionary lifer panels, and the statements provided to each, are not valid; the social supervisor's role in respect of restricted patients is not subject to the conflict of role implied in the question; and the caseworker guide already requires information from all parties who will be responsible for the supervision of conditionally discharged patients in the community.