§ Mr. McMasterTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what arrangements are in place for the post-release supervision and support of discharged prisoners with mental illness; what further initiatives he plans to improve these services; what plans he has to ensure the proper co-ordination of service delivery; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. StewartPsychiatric and social work supervision may, where appropriate, be the subject of conditions in the licences on which life sentence prisoners and some determinate sentence prisoners are released. In addition, community-based psychiatric and social work services are available to all former prisoners as to any other person who requires such services.
"The National Objectives and Standards for Social Work Services in the Criminal Justice System", issued by the Scottish Office in February 1991, identified in paragraphs 108 and 109 the special needs of offenders who 254W are mentally handicapped or disturbed and stressed that it is a vital part of the prison-based social work task to encourage and assist such prisoners to make contact with the relevant helping agencies prior to release. In such situations, the role of the community-based social worker is to facilitate the provision of necessary rehabilitation programmes or accommodation.