§ Mr. McCartneyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will give a breakdown of the referrals for psychiatric treatment of prisoners broken down by category for each year since 1984.
(2) how many referrals for prisoners were for the treatment of psychiatric disorders for each year since 1984.
§ Mr. MacleanResponsibility for these matters has been delegated to the director general of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Derek Lewis to Mr. Ian McCartney, dated 21 July 1994:
The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Questions about referrals for psychiatric treatment, broken down by category for each year since 1984.This information is not available in the form requested. However, the table below gives the number of prisoners seen by NHS consultant psychiatrists and those transferred under Sections 47 and 48 of the Mental Health Act 1983 to outside psychiatric facilities for treatment, for 1986 onwards.
Year Number of prisoners referred to NHS psychiatrists Number of prisoners transferred under (Section 47 and 48 of the MHA 1983) 1986–87 9,975 159 1987–88 9,410 183 1988–89 13,745 184 1989–90 12,670 220 1990–91 13,396 323 1991–92 17,583 379 1992–93 16,737 625 The study of psychiatric disorder in sentenced prisoners carried out by Professor Gunn et al from the Institute of Psychiatry in 1990 gave an estimated prevalence of psychiatric disorder by diagnostic group as follows:
Diagnoses Per cent. Psychosis 1.9 Neurotic disorder 5.3 Personality disorder 8.2 Sexual deviation 1.9 Organic disorder 0.9 It is likely that referrals and transfers shown would follow the same prevalence of diagnosis.