Asked by: Lord Patel of Bradford (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people were detained in secure facilities in England in 2019; and for the breakdown of the total by (1) gender, (2) age, and (3) ethnicity.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The information is not available in the format requested.
Asked by: Lord Patel of Bradford (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many patients were in inpatient psychiatric wards in England in 2019; and for the breakdown of the total by (1) gender, (2) age, and (3) ethnicity.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The information is not available in the format requested.
Asked by: Lord Patel of Bradford (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government since March, what is the total number of people in England who have presented at accident and emergency departments with (1) an overdose, or (2) parasuicide; and whether they can provide these figures broken down by region.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The diagnosis coding scheme used in the Emergency Care Data Set does not uniquely identify parasuicide.
The following table shows data on accident and emergency (A&E) attendances with a primary diagnosis of overdose, by commissioning region, April - September 2020.
Commissioning region | Attendances |
London | 4,955 |
South West | 6,710 |
South East | 8,040 |
Midlands | 11,220 |
East of England | 5,895 |
North West | 7,820 |
North East and Yorkshire | 10,825 |
Unknown | 10 |
England | 55,473 |
It should be noted that this is not a count of patients as an individual may have attended an A&E department in any given period.
Asked by: Lord Patel of Bradford (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the Care Quality Commision's policy on the number of inspection visits that should take place in a 12 month period to mental health facilities rated as (1) inadequate, (2) requires improvement, (3) good, or (4) outstanding; and how frequently providers should expect a full quality ratings review from the Care Quality Commission when rated as (1) requires improvement, or (2) inadequate.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) planned the frequency of routine inspections based on ratings, whilst retaining the ability to inspect at any time in response to risk. However, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the CQC paused routine inspections and adapted its regulatory model by using an intelligence driven approach, focusing on services where risk to service users is greatest. This approach will continue to develop as the CQC learns from the experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Asked by: Lord Patel of Bradford (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what guidance they will provide for care workers in self-isolation as part of the test and trace programme; whether, under that programme, all care workers who came into contact with a care home resident with COVID-19 symptoms would be expected to self-isolate; and whether a care worker returning to work using public transport after a period of self-isolation would be expected to isolate again if they received another alert.
Answered by Lord Bethell
On 4 June Public Health England updated guidance on the management of staff and exposed patients or residents in health and social care settings to reflect NHS Test and Trace.
This guidance outlines that if a health or care worker has had close recent contact with someone who has COVID-19, healthcare workers must self-isolate if the NHS Test and Trace service advises the individual to do so. If contacted after a previous period of isolation, they would be expected to isolate again. Close contact excludes circumstances where personal protective equipment is being worn in accordance with current guidance on infection, prevention and control.
The COVID-19: management of staff and exposed patients or residents in health and social care settings guidance was first published on 4 April in an online only format on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Lord Patel of Bradford (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following their decision to release low-risk prisoners during the COVID-19 pandemic, how many such prisoners have been released so far; and, what steps they are taking (1) to widen the criteria to include more prisoners convicted of non-violent and petty crimes, (2) to consider temporary release alongside early release, (3) to suspend the imposition of sentences under six months, and (4) to consider the release of elderly prisoners who do not pose a serious risk to the public.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
As of 11 May, 78 prisoners have been released early; 52 were released as part of the End of Custody Temporary Release (ECTR) scheme, and 26 were released on compassionate grounds.
The ECTR scheme is aimed at low-risk offenders approaching the end of their sentence and therefore will include prisoners convicted of some, but not all, non-violent and petty crimes. The eligible offences have been chosen to strike the right balance between protecting the public and reducing transmission in prisons.
Releases are just one part of a wider strategy to create headroom, including by increasing the capacity of the existing prison estate. Modelling suggests that the headroom reduction required to implement compartmentalisation of prisons as a control on the spread of the virus is around 5,500. We are on track to achieving this target.
We have no plans to end short term prison sentences. Sentencing is a matter for our independent courts, taking into account the circumstances of each case and following any relevant sentencing guidelines issued by the Sentencing Council. A custodial sentence should always be a last resort.
Elderly and acutely medically vulnerable prisoners who have been thoroughly risk-assessed are in scope for early release on compassionate grounds.
Asked by: Lord Patel of Bradford (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people in adult prisons in England and Wales have mental health problems .
Answered by Lord Bethell
This information is not available in the format requested.
Asked by: Lord Patel of Bradford (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much NHS England spent on healthcare services in adult prisons in England and Wales in 2019; and how much of this was spent on mental health services.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The information is not held in the format requested.
Asked by: Lord Patel of Bradford (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what services are provided for people with mental health problems in prisons in England and Wales; and how NHS England monitors (1) the quality of mental health services, and (2) the outcomes those services achieve.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Health Needs Assessments are undertaken for each prison to understand what the healthcare needs are for that particular prison population. Mental health services within each prison will be commissioned based on the findings of this assessment and will therefore be different for each prison.
Quality monitoring of NHS England and NHS Improvement commissioned healthcare services in prisons is undertaken by the seven regional commissioning teams through their local contract quality and performance arrangements. National quality reporting requirements have been developed to provide a consistent set of quality indicators for local monitoring.
Asked by: Lord Patel of Bradford (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people in adult prisons in England and Wales were involved in (1) self-harm incidents, and (2) self-inflicted deaths, in 2019; and how many of those had a mental health problem.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
The Government publishes quarterly statistics on self-harm in prison - the latest version provides figures up to September 2019. We also publish annual death in custody statistics, all of which are available at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/safety-in-custody-statistics.
There were 84 self-inflicted deaths in custody between Jan to Dec 2019, of which all 84 were in adult prisons.
There were 10,651 individuals self-harming in custody between Jan to Sept 2019, of which 10,421 were in adult prisons.
The Ministry of Justice cannot provide the information on how many of these individuals had a mental health problem as we do not hold clinical data.