Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the (a) level and (b) appropriateness of use of (i) prone restraint and (ii) other forms of restraint on people (A) autistic people and (B) people with learning disabilities living in (I) residential care, (II) supported living and (III) hospital settings during the covid-19 outbreak.

The latest Mental Health Services Dataset on restrictive interventions for patients with a learning disability and/or autism in National Health Service-funded secondary mental health, learning disabilities and autism services in England shows a total of 4,810 restrictive interventions occurred in July 2020, with 310 being prone restraint. These figures are subject to data quality issues and should be interpreted with caution. Data is not available on restrictive interventions in other settings.

Restrictive interventions, or restraint, should only ever be used as a last resort using the least restrictive option, when all attempts to de-escalate a situation have been employed. The latest guidance is available at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/812435/reducing-the-need-for-restraint-and-restrictive-intervention.pdf.