Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many out of area placements for children and young people under the age of 18 NHS England has commissioned in in-patient mental health hospitals in each of the last three years where the length of stay for the patient has exceeded (a) one year, (b) two years and (c) three years.

Information on the length of stay for out of area placements is not collected centrally.

The length of stay of an individual patient is influenced by many factors. The aim is always to have as short a stay as possible in an in-patient setting with patients returning home and having support from community-based services.