It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Health Education England is currently reviewing the funding policy model for a number of professions including clinical psychology, to enable the determination of a fair, just and equitable process for allocating these funds now and in the future for all those professions.

This will include working in partnership with key stakeholders, including the British Psychological Society, to ensure the National Health Service continues to have the right people in the right place at the right time.

Stepping Forward to 2020/21 – Health Education England’s Workforce Plan, published in July 2017 set out plans to create 21,000 posts in the mental health workforce. The plan envisages 4,000 new Allied Health, Professional and Scientific, Therapeutic and Technical Staff (including clinical psychologists) joining the mental health workforce over the same period.

Health Education England currently commissions training for clinical psychologists and child and adolescent psychotherapists.

My Rt. hon. Friend the Prime Minister has announced her intention to come forward with a long-term plan for the National Health Service, supported by a multi-year financial settlement. The Government will work with NHS leaders, clinicians and experts to develop this long-term plan later this year, in advance of the Spending Review. Future arrangements for the funding of training for healthcare professionals, including clinical psychologists and child and adolescent psychotherapists, will be considered as part of this.

Information is not currently available in the format requested.

The latest workforce data published by NHS Digital is for January 2018. This can be found at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statistics/nhs-workforce-statistics---january-2018#Summary

However, the specific level of detail relating to this aspect of the National Health Service workforce is not currently available.

The most recent Improving Access to Psychological Therapies census for 2015 can be found at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/mentalhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2016/09/adult-iapt-workforce-census-report-15.pdf

All members of the Parole Board, including psychologist members, are subject to quality assurance processes. Members are assessed as part of their accreditation to make decisions and there is on-going, routine quality assurance thereafter.

Cases where there has been a serious further offence within three years of a Parole Board decision to release are reviewed by the Board’s Review Committee and any learning that is identified is used to inform future policy, guidance and training.

The Parole Board also has a Standards Committee that focuses on developing and promoting high standards of practice across the whole of the Board.

Where the release of a prisoner is at the discretion of the Parole Board, the panel must apply the statutory release test which requires the Board to be ‘satisfied that it is no longer necessary for the protection of the public that a prisoner should be confined’.

Parole panels comprise one or more members according to the needs and complexity of the case. Some, but not all, Parole Board panels include a psychologist member of the Parole Board.

At an oral hearing, the parole panel will hear evidence and witnesses may include a prison psychologist and/or an independent psychologist.

Psychologist members of the Parole Board do not undertake psychological assessment of prisoners nor do they give evidence to the parole panel. They sit in the same capacity as other members of the panel to assess the risk of serious harm to the public. The panel must determine whether the public would be at risk of further serious violent or sexual offending if the prisoner were to be released. Psychologist members have professional knowledge of psychology to assist the panel in considering the psychological assessment that forms part of the broad range of evidence before the panel.

Where the release of a prisoner is at the discretion of the Parole Board, the panel must apply the statutory release test which requires the Board to be ‘satisfied that it is no longer necessary for the protection of the public that a prisoner should be confined’.

Parole panels comprise one or more members according to the needs and complexity of the case. Some, but not all, Parole Board panels include a psychologist member of the Parole Board.

At an oral hearing, the parole panel will hear evidence and witnesses may include a prison psychologist and/or an independent psychologist.

Psychologist members of the Parole Board do not undertake psychological assessment of prisoners nor do they give evidence to the parole panel. They sit in the same capacity as other members of the panel to assess the risk of serious harm to the public. The panel must determine whether the public would be at risk of further serious violent or sexual offending if the prisoner were to be released. Psychologist members have professional knowledge of psychology to assist the panel in considering the psychological assessment that forms part of the broad range of evidence before the panel.

The Department has not undertaken an impact assessment on the National Health Service offering unpaid internships in psychology.

The responsibility for and decision as to whether to offer internships rests with individual NHS trusts.

As at 31 March 2017, there were 655 full-time equivalent psychologists working in prison establishments (including young offender institutions) across England and Wales.

Psychiatrists are employed as part of the NHS health service provision to prisoners, commissioned by NHS England and by the NHS in Wales. Prisons work closely with NHS services to enable access to high quality care in prisons.