§ Mr. MichaelTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will publish his response to the Reed report.
§ Mr. Peter LloydThe final summary report of the Department of Health and Home Office joint review of services for mentally disordered offenders—the "Reed report"—was published on 27 November 1992. In reply to a question on that day from my hon. Friend the Member for Teignbridge (Mr. Nichols), my hon. Friend the Member for Suffolk, South (Mr. Yeo) explained how the Government intended to respond or were already responding to the review.
So far as my Department is concerned, a key objective identified and endorsed by the review is the diversion of mentally disordered offenders from the criminal justice system wherever possible. Since my hon. Friend's announcement, this has been given a further boost by the issue of an invitation to local agencies to apply for funding to support court-based duty psychiatrist schemes. We are already funding a number of other diversion projects as well as a series of regional conferences organised by the Mental Health Foundation which are intended to promote inter-agency co-operation in this field.