Mental Health Services: Prisons

Harry Cohen
To ask the Secretary of State for Health which NHS trusts have received funding for dealing with prisoners with psychiatric and mental health problems; how much they have received; how they have spent the money; how many prisoner patients have received treatment as a consequence; and if she will make a statement.

Ms Rosie Winterton
Mental health services have been a key part of the Government’s recent reforms of health services in prisons, and the Department is now investing over £20 million a year in national health service mental health in-reach services for prisoners.

All primary care trusts with prisons in their locality receive a proportion of this funding as part of their allocation for providing healthcare services to prisoners.

There are now 102 community mental health teams working within prisons, with some 360 extra staff employed. Since 2006, every prison in England and Wales has had access to these services. Information on how many prisoners receive these services is not collected centrally.

This year, the Department will make an additional £4 million available to aid further improvements to mental health in-reach and child and adolescent mental health services, based on a national needs assessment.