Mental Health Services: Prisoners
(asked on 3rd July 2026) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps are being taken to improve mental health support for prisoners.
NHS England commissions prison health care services into every prison in England to the equivalence of the community. NHS England’s Service Specification for integrated mental health services in prisons states that patients within secure settings should receive the same level of healthcare as those people in the community, both in terms of the range of interventions available to them which meet their needs, and the quality and standards of those interventions. The specification is available at the following link:
Access to mental health provision is available to every person in prison at any stage of their sentence, this begins at the point of entry. NHS England commissions first night reception screening to review patients’ medical history by a registered nurse or practitioner, with the following purposes: to address immediate health needs and risks; to ensure medication is made available as soon as possible; and to ensure onward referrals to onsite healthcare teams, including mental health services, for both urgent face to face appointments within 24 hours, and routine face to face appointments within five working days, are made. Outside of reception screening, people in prison can be referred or self-refer to mental health services, within those timeframes.
To improve mental health services in prison, NHS England is revising the National Integrated Prison Service Specification to ensure it continues to meet the needs of the prison population.