Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the quality of mental health services available for people in prison.

Improving the physical and mental health of people in prison is a top priority for this Government.

It is recognised that there are large numbers of people in prison with mental ill health. When people do go to prison, they should receive the same standard and access to National Health Service healthcare and mental health treatments and care as people in the community. The Department has not made a formal assessment of levels of access and quality of mental health services for people in prison.

It is important to ensure that care started in prison can be continued on release into the community. Offenders should have the same access to healthcare services as everyone else once they are released from prison. Progress has been made in this area and general practitioner practices are now required to pre-register prisoners prior to their release.