Clause 40

Part of Mental Health Bill [Lords] – in a Public Bill Committee at 11:30 am on 15 May 2007.

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Photo of Angela Browning Angela Browning Deputy Chairman (Organising and Campaigning), Conservative Party, Deputy Chair, Conservative Party 11:30, 15 May 2007

Let us suppose that it is recognised that there is a need for someone with a custodial sentence to be referred to a hospital placement. When that does not take place, there is the obvious problem of managing the person in the prison. I represent a Devon consistency and I have visited Dartmoor prison from time to time. It is my limited experience that mental health patients, which is how I describe them, are often confined to the medical wing on a semi-permanent basis because that is the most containable place in which to manage them.

If that referral is never made, however, the prison has to deal with the patient on an ongoing basis. When that person is discharged from prison, they could be sent back into the community with no proper contact with mental health services. They may have contact with the probation service, but not mental health services.