HC Deb 23 January 1976 vol 903 cc590-1W
Mr. Speed

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the advisory committee on the desirability of releasing patients from Broadmoor Hospital was set up; what are its terms of reference; what is its membership; and what reviews it has so far undertaken.

Mr. Roy Jenkins

The Advisory Board on Restricted Patients was set up in September 1973 following acceptance of the recommendations in the Aarvold Report (Cmnd. 5191). Its functions are to advise on proposals for the discharge or transfer of the small number of patients detained subject to the special restrictions set out in Section 65 of the Mental Health Act who have been identified, in accordance with the criteria recommended in the Aarvold Report, as requiring special care in assessment.

The Board comprises six members drawn from the legal, medical and social work disciplines. The chairman is Sir Carl Aarvold; the other members are Dr. J. Harper, Mr. A. W. Hunt, Mr. G. Jones, Mr. H. J. Leonard, QC, and Dr. P. D. Scott.

The Board has so far considered the cases of 18 patients, 12 of whom were detained in Broadmoor Hospital and six in Rampton Hospital.

The Committee on Mentally Abnormal Offenders, under the chairmanship of Lord Butler, has in its final report (Cmnd. 6244) recommended a substantial extension of the system for submitting proposals for the discharge and transfer of restricted patients to the scrutiny of an independent board, and I intend to introduce a wider procedure on these lines as soon as the detailed arrangements have been worked out. The constitution and scope of the proposed enlarged advisory body have not yet been decided.