§ Mr. HinchliffeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what assessment is made of the requirements of mentally disordered offenders in determining appropriate staffing levels for individual prisons;
(2) what steps he takes to ensure that mentally disordered offenders awaiting transfer from prison to NHS establishments receive appropriate care and treatment prior to transfer;
(3) what is his current estimate of the number of mentally disordered offenders within HM prison, Wakefield who are awaiting transfer to national health service facilities; and what is the maximum waiting period.
§ Mr. Peter LloydResponsibility 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 A. J. Butler to Mr. David Hinchliffe, dated 13 May 1994:
The Home Secretary has asked me, in the absence of the Director General from the office, to reply to your recent Questions about mentally disordered offenders.The health care staffing of an establishment is a matter on which the governor is advised by the head of health care and by senior health professionals at Prison Service Headquarters. It is open to the governor to recruit more health care staff within the constraints of his/her budget or to seek extra funds for this purpose. The second floor of the Wakefield health care centre, which HM Inspectors found was not in use because of staffing problems, has been in continuous use for the past three months.As of 10 May 1994 there were 30 prisoners in Wakefield Prison who, in the opinion of the Senior Medical Officer, require in patient treatment in a psychiatric hospital. One prisoner has been waiting over six months for transfer to a regional secure unit.The Prison Service strives to provide a service for mentally disordered prisoners equivalent to that which they would receive in the community. To this end consultant psychiatrists provided 16,737 consultations in 1992/93. Since June 1993 the Newcastle Mental Health Trust has been contracted to provide a multi-disciplinary service to Durham, Frankland and Low Newton prisons. We aim to extend contracting-in to other parts of the prison system. There is also a strategy to increase the number of professionally qualified health care staff, through the recruitment of nursing grades and improved training for health care officers. Between March 1992 and March 1994 the number of nursing grades working in prisons rose from 257 to 539 and the percentage of all health care staff with professional qualifications increased from 35 per cent. to 51 per cent.
§ Mr. HinchliffeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he is taking to respond to the references in the report of 10 May by Judge Stephen Tumin into the number of mentally disordered offenders within HM prison, Wakefield who would be more appropriately placed in national health service establishments.
§ Mr. Peter LloydIt is Government policy that offenders who have mental disorders requiring in-patient care should receive it from the national health service. Every effort is made to ensure the swift transfer of such prisoners to appropriate outside hospitals. In England and Wales the number of Mental Health Act transfers to hospital has more than doubled from 325 in 1990 to 755 in 257W 1993. We hope that this figure will continue to rise in future years, although any further increase in transfers will depend on sufficient capacity in outside hospitals.