Mental Health Bill [HL]

Debate between Baroness Fox of Buckley and Lord Timpson

Report stage
Monday 31st March 2025 Lords Chamber

[The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord Timpson) (Lab)]

I am grateful to my noble friend Lord Bradley for bringing this discussion before the House today and his commitment to improving outcomes for patients since the publication in 2009 of the Bradley Report, which highlighted the need to ensure that transfers between prison and secure hospital take place in a timely manner. I also thank him for his kind words about my superb team in the Ministry of Justice.

The Government are committed to addressing the unnecessary delays that some patients experience, which can cause significant distress to these individuals, their families and those charged with their care. Transparency and accountability, as the noble Lord, Lord Davies of Brixton, and the noble Baroness, Lady Tyler, expressed clearly, are essential to the successful implementation of this reform and to reducing delays more broadly. I thank my noble friend Lord Bradley for the constructive conversations with my officials since Committee to ensure we get this oversight mechanism right.

I am pleased to share that this Government have recently established a health and justice strategic advisory group, which will bring together key partners with responsibility for the various parts of the transfer process. This group will be chaired by a national clinical director, who will report regularly to Ministers and be responsible for agreeing a joint work plan to support implementation of the statutory time limit, identifying solutions to common barriers to timely transfers and holding partners to account. I am confident that this group will provide effective oversight by bringing together operational leaders across health and justice with the levers necessary to effect change, while inviting challenge from critical friends such as the Care Quality Commission and His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons to ensure external scrutiny. I will continue to work closely with my noble friend Lady Merron to ensure that the long-term future of the strategic advisory group remains a priority.

As my noble friend announced earlier, the Government have committed to providing an annual report to Parliament on the implementation of the Mental Health Act reforms. Through this reporting mechanism, I will update Parliament on the implementation of the statutory time limit and on the strategic advisory group, and provide data on transfer timelines when available for publication. I hope this reassures my noble friend of this Government’s commitment to improving timely access to treatment. I urge him to withdraw his amendment.

Amendment 40 tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Fox, and supported by the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett of Manor Castle, would ensure that prisoners released into the community who have previously been treated for a mental disorder can continue to receive access to treatment in the community. Section 117 of the Mental Health Act already places a duty on health and social care services to provide aftercare to patients under specific criminal justice sections of the Act who are released from hospital into prison or into the community. These services aim to reduce the risk of a deterioration of the patient’s mental condition and, accordingly, the risk of them requiring admission to hospital again for treatment.

The noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, is right that our women’s prisons have many women who are mentally unwell. That is why we have set up the Women’s Justice Board—to reduce the number of women in prison and to help divert many women away from custody in the first place.

The noble Baroness, Lady Fox, will be pleased to know that, in addition to the Section 117 aftercare that is available to those detained under the Mental Health Act, all prisoners who have engaged in any form of treatment while in prison—regardless of whether they have been detained under the Mental Health Act —have access to services in the community when they are released.

To strengthen the links between substance misuse and health services in prisons and in the community, and to support access to treatment, we have recruited 57 health and justice partnership co-ordinators and managers across all probation regions in England and Wales. NHS England’s RECONNECT, a care after custody service, supports prison leavers with vulnerabilities including mental health needs to engage with the right health services in the community through referrals and peer support. The noble Lord, Lord Kamall, is right: through-the-gate continuity is crucial. The successful pathway is how we reduce reoffending and help people who are unwell.

I hope this reassures the noble Baroness that there is already sufficient provision in the Act to ensure that prisoners who have previously been treated for a mental disorder can continue to receive access to treatment in the community. I urge her not to move the amendment.

[Baroness Fox of Buckley (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, I do not doubt in any way that prisoners can access that community care; the problem is that they are not accessing it. The assurances about new schemes are positive, but the idea was to make this more than just an abstract wish list and make sure that something practical happens. If that is what the new scheme—although it does not exist yet—will do, that is reassuring, but it is certainly not what is happening now.

Sentences of Imprisonment for Public Protection

Debate between Baroness Fox of Buckley and Lord Timpson

Monday 24th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Timpson (Lab)]

There are 241 IPP prisoners in secure mental health settings as of the last figures published. It is those who are of real concern to me, because they are so far away from being safe to be released. We need to make sure that we support them—as in the example I gave earlier of the prisoner whom I met recently—in their journey. The work that the Government are doing on the Mental Health Act, with the provisions being put in place, will, hopefully, contribute to a more successful outcome.

[Baroness Fox of Buckley (Non-Afl)]

My Lords—

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Fox of Buckley (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, following on from the request of the noble Baroness, Lady Burt, for more detailed data, will the Government make public detailed data of the different gradations of risk presented by the various cohorts of the IPP prisoner population, assuming that they are not treated as an undifferentiated blob? Then, could the Government apply the same risk-assessment criteria used for early release decisions to the least risky IPP prisoners and release them now—hardly early—because to exclude IPP prisoners from emergency measures to ease overcrowding seems irrational and even cruel?

[Lord Timpson (Lab)]

The noble Baroness will be pleased to know that I raised this when we had the Peers round table a few months ago—I am hoping to have another one in May—when we talked about the RAG rating of IPP prisoners. At the time, we just RAG rated those in prison, and I am pleased that everybody in the community is now also RAG rated, which will help. I am hopeful that noble Lords will suggest to me what they would like on the agenda for our round table, which I hope will be in May. Maybe we can discuss the important questions around data then.