§ Mrs. BrintonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health when the Mental Health Act Commission will publish data on the deaths of detained patients; and if he will make a statement. [101065]
§ Mr. HuttonValidation of the data for the first two years of systematic collection—February 1997 to January 1999—has taken longer than expected and is still ongoing. The numbers involved in this study are very small for statistical purposes. A preliminary review of the data has indicated that adding a third year's data—February 1999 to January 2000—will increase the strength of the data considerably and increase the possibility that general conclusions may be drawn from the overall study. The Mental Health Act Commission aims to publish a report on the deaths of detained patients by May 2000.