HC Deb 06 June 1995 vol 261 cc29-30W
Mr. Nicholas Brown

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if her Department has, within the last year, published an operational definition of serious mental illness to offer guidance to purchasers and providers on patients who should be prioritised for mental health services. [26074]

Mr. Bowis

We have not published a prescriptive definition of severe mental illness.

We issued for consultation in October 1994 a "Draft Guide to Arrangements for Inter-agency Working for the Care and Protection of Severely Mentally Ill People". The draft guide contains a framework definition of severe mental illness on which local services can base their own more detailed operational definitions. Copies of the draft are available in the Library.

Mr. Nicholas Brown

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many mentally ill people having come before a court with an offence punishable by imprisonment have been subject to a section 37 hospital order under the Mental Health Act 1983 for each year since 1989. [26645]

Mr. Bowis

The number of admissions to hospital under section 37 is published in the statistical bulletin "In-Patients Formally Detained in Hospitals Under The Mental Health Act 1983 and Other Legislation, England: 1987–88 to 1992–93", ISBN 1 85839 380 9. Copies of the bulletin are available in the Library.

Mr. Nicholas Brown

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment her Department has made as to the number of mentally ill people who are currently homeless. [26650]

Mr. Bowis

Homelessness legislation and criteria for rehousing are matters for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Environment.

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