§ Mr. Moonmanasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will now make a full review of all the circumstances in which Mr. James Harvey has been in psychiatric institutions since 1932 and details of which have been sent to him; and if he will place in the Official Report details of all such patients who first entered hospital in 1930 to 1940.
§ Mr. Moyle,pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 18th February; Vol. 926, c. 402], gave the following information:
According to Departmental records Mr. James Harvey was admitted to 463W Rampton Hospital under Section 6 of the Mental Deficiency Act 1913 in 1932. This section allowed for an order to be made by a judicial authority in relation to any mental defective—as defined under Section 1 of the Mental Deficiency Act 1913—in the circumstances set out in Section 2 of the 1913 Act, as amended by the 1927 Act. A justice of the peace for the City of Stoke-on-Trent found him, on medical evidence, to be a mental defective, within the meaning of the Act, and to he neglected and without means of support and signed an order on 7th April 1932. The medical reports indicated that he exhibited dangerous and violent propensities and he was admitted to Rampton Hospital on 8th April 1932. In 1935 he was transferred to Moss Side hospital for a period of six months, but was returned to Rampton Hospital following his absconding from Moss Side. In 1951 he was again transferred to Moss Side and on 19th April 1961 was transferred from Moss Side Hospital to Monyhull Hospital, Birmingham. I understand that he ceased to be subject to compulsory detention under the Mental Health Act 1959 on 26th May 1962. He continued to be a patient at Monyhull Hospital, on an informal basis, for various periods until 1971.
During the period in which he was in Rampton and Moss Side Hospitals the question of his transfer to a less secure hospital was considered on a number of occasions, but until 1961 the view of his doctors was that he still required care and treatment under conditions of special security.
Central records of all individual psychiatric patients are not maintained, and details of all patients who entered hospital in 1930–1940 are not available.