Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people are in prison as a place of safety in the (a) women’s and (b) male prison estate.

In January 2021, the Government committed to end the use of prison as a place of safety in the Reforming the Mental Health Act White Paper. There is currently no centralised source of data to record the use of this power. In order to better understand how often and in what circumstances people are sent to prison as a place of safety, we have established a cross-departmental working group. This group will analyse existing data sources to provide a more accurate picture of the use of these powers.