Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress is being made on providing indicative discharge dates or an action plan to people with learning disabilities detained under the Mental Health Act.

Discharge planning should start as soon as possible after admission to a mental health inpatient setting through a Care and Treatment Review. Health commissioners are required to report whether there is a planned date of discharge or transfer via the Assuring Transformation dataset published by NHS Digital. As of May 2021, 43% of current inpatients had a date for discharge or transfer.

We set out our proposed reforms in the Mental Health Act White Paper published on 13 January 2021. A Government response to the consultation will be published in due course.