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Mental Health Bill [HL]

My Lords, this interesting debate has been short but extremely important. I do not underestimate the challenges with the current system nor the challenges that will be faced in the future. My dividing line with the noble Earl and the noble Lord is that many of the problems they have identified are problems of case management and practice, as the noble Lord suggested. A number of such amendments are seeking to include in the Bill issues that come down to effective management and provision of services at local level. I also believe thatit is impractical to take away the Secretary ofState’s discretion, as is proposed, for example, in Amendment No. 30. The Secretary of State has to have discretion to consider all the matters involved, including those raised by the noble Earl, as well as the question of what facilities are available. I believe that finding the right hospital placement, which is extremely important, depends on good practice and local arrangements. I am doubtful about whether it would be wise to establish a mechanism whereby central Government through the Secretary of State intervened in those decisions. Of course I understand that there are frustrations in the current system, but I say to noble Lords—and it is disappointing that this has not been remarked on—that there have been and are taking place considerable improvements in the health services provided to prisoners and the facilities for patients who are so transferred. The Government are working very hard with local health service commissioners and providers to ensure that the right facilities are available. There has been a significant increase in the availability of medium secure beds, from 2,380 in 2001 to 3,330 last year. We hope that that will ensure that beds can be found more easily for remand prisoners who are likely to need secure beds. I understand that there will be situations where there may be discussions and disagreements about whether a named hospital could provide the right level of security as well as the right treatment. I say in defence of those hospitals that they have to resist taking responsibility for patients for whom they do not believe they have a safe and appropriate service. But in the end, this matter has to be resolved through discussion at a local level. I invite the noble Lord to consider that if, because of the direction power he wishes to give the Secretary of State, the risk is that in these difficult situations it is possible that local health services will seek not to resolve issues as they do now but refer more and more decisions up to the Secretary of State, that would be very unsatisfactory. It is much better to engage with local health service providers, encourage the continued development of services that we are seeing and do everything we can to make sure there is the closest possible co-operation between the courts and the health service. I do not think that relying on a direction power of the Secretary of State is really a sensible way to resolve the problem. Amendment No. 30 is concerned with the treatment of offenders who have been sentenced to prison and then need to be transferred to hospital for specialist treatment. The noble Earl, Lord Howe, referred to Home Office figures showing that 90 per cent of people have a history of mental health and/or substance misuse problems. That is a huge challenge for the Prison Service and the health service. The Government have sought to meet that challenge by improving the state of the health services available to prisoners and the involvement of the health servicein prison health services. The more we can do for prisoners’ health within prison, the better the outcome will be when they leave prison, and problems can be dealt with much more quickly than has previously been the case. We have set up 102 mental health inreach teams in prisons. This year, for the first time, all prisons should have access to these services. There are 360 more whole-time equivalent staff employed on mental health inreach provision, exceeding the NHS planned commitment for 300 in post by the end of 2004. Money has been spent on investing over three years on mental health awareness training for prison officers. We are making nearly £20 million a year available for mental health inreach services. People who are mentally ill and too disturbed to remain in prison should ordinarily be transferred to hospital as soon as possible. Once a prison has notified the Home Secretary that a prisoner requires treatment in a mental hospital in which he may be detained, the Home Secretary is under a duty expeditiously to take steps to obtain medical advice and, if that advice supports transfer, to take reasonable steps to effect it. But he would not be required to act against evidence that no appropriate hospital place was available or that public safety or public confidence would be put at risk. That perfectly sensible, reasonable discretion has to be given to the Home Secretary. The role of medical practitioners, of course, is fundamental to determining the suitability of a prisoner for transfer to hospital, but the amendment would give any qualified medical practitioners the final say in directing the transfer of prisoners. That would not be sensible in the best interests of public protection and potential patients, or in the allocation of NHS resources. Surely it would be nonsensical if a doctor specified a hospital that does not have the capacity to receive the patient or was unable to do so without endangering other patients. This is, of course, a challenge. We are doing better and we will continue to improve in the future. But this situation cannot be resolved by the waving of a magic wand. The acceptance of a new clause will not deal with these problems overnight.