Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many officials from his Department work exclusively on prison healthcare.

The mental health policy team in the Department works flexibly across a wide range of policy priorities, including healthcare for offenders in prison and in the community. Additionally, there are a range of other teams within the Department whose policy responsibilities have implications for prison healthcare. It is therefore not possible to say how many officials work exclusively on prison healthcare.

Information on how many Departmental officials have made visits to prisons in the last 12 months can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

I have Ministerial responsibility for offender healthcare, which includes healthcare in prisons and secure hospitals. I am planning to complete my round of visits to all high secure hospitals in England shortly with a visit to Rampton Secure Hospital, having already visited Broadmoor and Ashworth Secure Hospitals. Effective treatment in the community is an important means of reducing offending and reoffending behaviour, I therefore also have plans to visit a women’s centre and liaison and diversion services, as well as a prison, in the near future.