Psychiatric Patients: Death

(asked on 12th December 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people have died (a) while accommodated in acute mental health care facilities and (b) while detailed under the provisions of the Mental Health Act (1983) in each of the last five years.


Answered by
Maria Caulfield Portrait
Maria Caulfield
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
This question was answered on 18th December 2023

Information on how many people have died while accommodated in acute mental health care facilities is not held centrally.

The following table shows how many people died while detained under the Mental Health Act in each of the last five years:

Year

2018/19

2019/20

2020/21

2021/22

2022/23

Natural causes

136

143

268

152

165

Unnatural causes

34

32

33

46

46

Undetermined

25

65

62

72

53

Total

195

240

363

270

264

Source: Care Quality Commission

The following table shows how many people died while subject to community treatment orders in each of the last five years:

Year

2018/19

2019/20

2020/21

2021/22

2022/23

Natural causes

9

21

27

27

24

Unnatural causes

5

10

23

14

17

Undetermined

2

5

15

14

13

Total

16

36

65

55

54

Source: Care Quality Commission

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