Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the reasons for people with mental health illnesses being detained in police cells rather than being admitted to hospital.

Through assessing evidence gathered during the Government’s Review of the operations of 135 and 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983 (published in December 2014) and work with local areas on the Mental Health Crisis Care Concordat (published in February 2014), we understand that there are various reasons why people are being taken to police cells for assessment under section 136 of the Mental Health Act rather than to health-based places of safety.

The Concordat emphasises the clear guidance in the Mental Health Act Code of Practice (2008) and reiterated in the 2015 Code of Practice, which was laid before Parliament for approval on 15 January, that for people (of any age) ‘A police station should not be used as a place of safety except in exceptional circumstances’.

The Crisis Care Concordat sets out our expectation to see the use of police cells as places of safety falling rapidly, dropping below 50% of the 2011-12 figure by 2014-15 for adults, and to see the use of police cells as places of safety for children and young people end, except in the very exceptional circumstances where a police officer makes the decision that the immediate safety of a child or young person requires it. Every local area has signed a declaration committing partners to improve crisis care and to work towards ending the unnecessary use of police cells for people of all ages, in line with the standards set out in the Concordat.

Figures from the financial year 2013-14¹ show a reduction in the use of police cells for people of all ages by 22% as compared to the previous financial year, and unaudited figures for the first six months of 2014-15 indicate the use of police cells reduced by a further 24%.

Source:

1. Inpatients Formally Detained in Hospitals Under the Mental Health Act 1983 and Patients Subject to Supervised Community Treatment, England - 2013-2014, Annual figures. Health and Social Care Information Centre, 2014.
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