Written evidence submitted by the Justice Committee (MHB0081)

 

Dear Baroness Buscombe,

 

I am writing on behalf of the Justice Committee in response to the Joint Committee’s call for evidence on the Draft Mental Health Bill. We welcome the opportunity to contribute to your inquiry. We have confined our comments to two clauses in the draft Bill, which have been the focus of our recent work.

 

First, we support the proposal in clause 41 of the draft Bill to amend the Mental Health Act 1983 to remove prison and police cells as places of safety. In our 2021 Report ‘Mental Health in Prison’, we raised concern that some people who are acutely mentally ill are sent to prison as there is nowhere else safe for them.[1] Accordingly, we welcomed the Government’s commitment in its White Paper to legislate to end this practice. Prisons are not a suitable environment for people with mental health needs awaiting assistance and treatment. Rather, those needing assistance and support should be taken to a healthcare-based setting to receive appropriate treatment for their needs. 

 

Our Report also welcomed the Government’s recognition that legislative change needed to be supported by investment in alternatives to prison. We highlighted that there is a need for further investment in emergency mental health services for example, more bed spaces, which is at the heart of this issue. It continues to be our view that this needs to be addressed urgently. Indeed, we reiterated this concern in our recent Report ‘Women in Prison’, stating that: “prisons should not be regarded as a solution to the failings of care and protection in the community”.[2]

 

Second, we support the proposal in clause 42 of the draft Bill to amend the Bail Act 1976 to prevent the remand of a defendant on own protection or welfare grounds where the sole concern is their mental health. In our 2021 Report, we raised concern about the lack of safeguards under this provision, the length of time men, women and children may be remanded, and the unsuitability of prison for them. We concluded that the use of prisons in this way is wrong in principle.

 

The Government’s response to our Report at the time said it needed to fully consider all of the impacts of repealing this power in order to ensure its removal would not result in any vulnerable defendants coming to harm.[3] We welcome, therefore, the Government’s acknowledgement in the Explanatory Notes to the draft Bill that this power is inconsistent with measures in clause 41 of the draft Bill that remove prison as a place of safety. Again, however, we reiterate that such legislative change must be accompanied by investment in suitable hospital provision and services for those people who would otherwise have been remanded into custody.

 

I hope these observations are useful to your inquiry and look forward to reading your recommendations and conclusions on the draft Bill in due course.

Sir Robert Neill MP
Chair

Justice Committee

 

21 September 2022

 

 

 

 

 

             


[1] Justice Committee, Mental Health in Prison, Fifth Report of Session 2021-22, HC 72

[2] Justice Committee, Women in Prison, First Report of Session 2022-23, HC 265

[3] Justice Committee, Mental health in prison: Government Response to the Committee’s Fifth Report, Fifth Special Report of Session 2021-22, HC 1117