Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the potential merits of introducing Sectioning Support Officers to the NHS to reduce police officer time spent in hospitals.

Any decisions relating to staffing in the NHS is a matter for the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England.

The Right Care Right Person approach is an approach designed to end inappropriate and avoidable police involvement in cases where people have health and/or social care needs and help ensure that people receive support from the right person, with the right skills, training, and experience to best meet their needs.

The National Partnership Agreement (NPA), signed in July 2023 by Government, NHS England and national policing bodies, sets out the principles of Right Care Right Person and how they can jointly deliver the best care to communities. The NPA sets out that local areas should work towards handovers of care between the police and mental health services taking place within one hour as specified in local plans. This one hour handover will reduce the amount of time spent by police officers with mental health patients in hospital.