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Mental Health Services: Prisons

Volume 462: debated on Thursday 12 July 2007

(2) what funding he provided for prison psychiatric care in each of the last five years; and what percentage of the prison health care budget each figure represented.

Information on expenditure on additional psychiatric beds is not collected centrally. Funding is allocated on the basis of individual need, as determined by local commissioners.

Expenditure on medical services for prisoners in the last six years, which includes psychiatric services, is shown in the following table.

Expenditure on prison healthcare in England 2002-03 to 2006-07

Amount (£)

2002-03

117,615,000

2003-04

139,705,000

2004-05

158,002,000

2005-06

177,511,000

2006-07

189,319,000

Note:

The figures quoted include amount spend on mental health in-reach services in both publicly and privately managed prisons.

Source:

Department of Health

The 2007-08 allocation currently stands at £198,999,000.

The figure for 2006-07 also includes an amount to cover the cost of implementing Agenda for Change, backdated to October 2004, for prison health care staff who have transferred to the national health service.

Drug treatment funding allocated to prisons globally over the past six years is shown in the following table.

Table 2: drug treatment funding allocated to prisons 2001-02 to 2006-07

£ million

Intervention

2001-02

2002-03

2003-04

2004-05

2005-06

2006-07

Clinical services (detoxification and/or maintenance prescribing)

7.30

7.30

11.30

11.30

11.30

23.3

Counselling, assessment, referral, advice and through care services (CARATs)

12.91

14.30

17.40

23.20

26.70

31.7

Drug rehabilitation programmes

7.09

7.10

9.00

13.90

19.40

19.40

Juvenile substance misuse service (JSMS)

2.30

2.9

2.9

Total

27.30

28.70

37.70

50.70

60.30

77.3

Source:

Home Office

There is currently no central funding for implementing the Alcohol Strategy for Prisoners (introduced December 2004). A number of initiatives are under way locally but such spend is not recorded centrally.

For drug and alcohol treatment for other convicted persons, the Drug Treatment and Testing Order (DTTO) and, since April 2005, the Drug Rehabilitation Requirement (DRR) of the community order, which has gradually replaced it, are the only community sentences which require the offender to attend drug treatment. Funding for DTTOs and DRRs over the last six years is shown in the following table.

Funding for DTTOs and the DRRs 2001-02 to 2005-06

£ million

Amount paid to pooled treatment budget to fund DTTO/DRR treatment and testing in England

Allocation to probation areas to fund DTTO/DRR supervision and enforcement costs in England and full DTTO/DRR costs in Wales

2001-02

14.8

21.2

2002-03

20

16

2003-04

29.7

24

2004-05

42

34

2005-06

42

39

2006-07

42

39

Source:

Home Office

Additionally, £3 million was made available in 2005-06 to the Prospects programme, a pilot which provides offenders with a history of drug misuse with seamless support from prison to the community in a residential setting.

DTTO and DRR allocations are projected to remain the same in 2006-07. The 2006-07 allocation for Prospects was £3.8 million, which has risen to £4.35 million for 2007-08.

There is no dedicated funding provided by Government to support the provision of alcohol treatment to offenders under probation supervision. Instead, each probation area determines the amount of its annual probation funding allocation to spend on alcohol treatment. Information about alcohol treatment spend by probation area is not centrally available.

Funding plans for any of these programmes and services for the next five years have not yet been finalised, although they are all ongoing.