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Prisoners (Mental Health)

Mr. Beith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners in England, Wales and Scotland received some form of mental health care in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [1527]

Miss Widdecombe: Responsibility for this matter as far as England and Wales are concerned has been delegated to the temporary Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given. The provision of information about the position in Scotland is a matter for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland.

Letter from Richard Tilt to Mr. A. J. Beith, dated 24 November 1995:

The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question about the number of prisoners in England and Wales who have received some form of mental health care in each of the last five years.
This information is not available in the form requested. The Mental Health Act 1983 provides for prisoners who are so mentally disordered as to warrant their detention in a psychiatric hospital for medical treatment to be transferred to such hospitals. The number of such transfers for the years in question is as follows:

Year	Number transferred
1990	337
1991	457
1992	605
1993	767
1994	784

24 Nov 1995 : Column: 376

Since December 1991, Prison Service establishments in England and Wales have been carrying out regular medical monitoring exercises. To monitor the assessed needs of mentally disordered prisoners, information is collected centrally on a periodic basis. On a given day prisoners considered by prison doctors to need some form of mental health care are categorised as follows:
(a) prisoners requiring removal or transfer to a psychiatric hospital under Mental Health Act provisions and who are awaiting transfer. This figure included remand prisoners awaiting disposal by the court.
(b) prisoners who were sufficiently ill to be occupying in-patient beds in prison health care centres.
(c) prisoners requiring some form of mental health care but not removal/transfer to psychiatric hospital or in-patient treatment in a prison health care centre.
These single-day surveys can be used to calculate the average number of prisoners requiring transfer to a psychiatric hospital or some other form of mental health care on any one day in the year in question and produce the following figures.

Year	Number of prisoners
1992	2,483
1993	2,694
1994	2,742

Crime Statistics

Mr. Beith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) serving police officers, (b) civilian staff assisting the police and (c) crimes there were in the latest available 15 years for each police authority in the United Kingdom; and what was the ratio of crimes to police officers in each case. [1529]

24 Nov 1995 : Column: 377

Mr. Maclean: Information about police strength and criminal offences recorded by the police for each force in England and Wales for the last 15 years can be found in the appendix to the annual reports of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary and in "Criminal Statistics, England and Wales". Copies of these reports are in the Library.

The table gives the number of notifiable offences, excluding criminal damage valued at £20 and under, recorded per police officer for each force area in England and Wales for the years 1980 to 1994. Figures for Scotland and Northern Ireland are matters for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland and my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

Notifiable offences recorded per police officer

Force area	1980	1981	1982	1983	1984
Avon and Somerset	18	20	22	22	24
Bedfordshire	27	29	30	31	34
Cambridgeshire	26	28	26	26	26
Cheshire	17	19	21	22	23
Cleveland	23	26	29	28	32
Cumbria	15	16	18	19	21
Derbyshire	19	23	25	24	26
Devon and Cornwall	17	19	20	21	22
Dorset	20	21	24	25	26
Durham	20	22	25	26	30
Essex	20	21	23	23	23
Gloucestershire	16	18	20	19	21
Greater Manchester	26	30	32	33	37
Hampshire	20	23	25	25	27
Hertfordshire	21	22	24	22	24
Humberside	17	27	30	29	32
Kent	17	18	21	21	23
Lancashire	16	18	20	20	22
Leicestershire	19	21	24	24	25
Lincolnshire	15	17	20	20	22
London, City of	7	7	8	8	8
Merseyside	24	27	29	29	32
MPD	23	24	25	24	26
Norfolk	19	23	26	26	26
Northamptonshire	24	25	29	29	31
Northumbria	30	33	38	38	43
North Yorkshire	15	18	20	20	22
Nottinghamshire	33	37	37	36	38
South Yorkshire	20	22	25	26	30
Staffordshire	17	19	20	22	23
Suffolk	16	18	19	20	21
Surrey	14	15	17	17	17
Sussex	16	17	20	21	22
Thames Valley	23	25	28	28	30
Warwickshire	15	18	20	21	23
West Mercia	17	20	23	23	24
West Midlands	25	28	31	31	34
West Yorkshire	25	27	29	28	31
Wiltshire	18	20	22	22	24
Dyfed-Powys	15	12	13	14	16
Gwent	33	20	23	24	25
North Wales	20	20	21	22	24
South Wales	23	24	27	27	29
England and Wales	21	23	26	25	27

Force area	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989
Avon and Somerset	26	30	32	31	31
Bedfordshire	34	38	39	37	38
Cambridgeshire	27	27	28	28	30
Cheshire	23	24	26	24	23
Cleveland	32	36	38	37	38
Cumbria	22	25	23	22	23
Derbyshire	25	24	24	22	25
Devon and Cornwall	23	25	25	25	26
Dorset	27	29	30	28	30
Durham	30	30	30	29	30
Essex	24	26	26	25	26
Gloucestershire	23	24	28	28	29
Greater Manchester	39	43	41	39	38
Hampshire	28	30	30	28	30
Hertfordshire	24	26	25	24	24
Humberside	36	39	43	41	43
Kent	24	24	25	25	26
Lancashire	22	24	25	26	24
Leicestershire	26	27	28	28	30
Lincolnshire	25	25	28	26	28
London, City of	8	10	9	8	9
Merseyside	32	35	33	29	27
MPD	26	28	26	25	26
Norfolk	28	30	30	30	32
Northamptonshire	34	35	36	33	34
Northumbria	45	46	47	43	48
North Yorkshire	25	25	25	24	24
Nottinghamshire	38	40	40	39	43
South Yorkshire	28	30	31	28	30
Staffordshire	24	26	25	25	26
Suffolk	23	25	25	24	26
Surrey	17	19	19	19	20
Sussex	23	23	22	22	25
Thames Valley	31	33	32	29	32
Warwickshire	22	23	25	23	25
West Mercia	24	25	24	23	24
West Midlands	35	38	38	33	32
West Yorkshire	31	32	33	31	34
Wiltshire	25	25	23	22	23
Dyfed-Powys	16	17	18	19	17
Gwent	27	25	26	23	23
North Wales	25	26	27	25	25
South Wales	30	33	33	35	35
England and Wales	28	30	30	28	29

24 Nov 1995 : Column: 378

Force area	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994
Avon and Somerset	40	48	55	56	55
Bedfordshire	48	51	51	49	47
Cambridgeshire	36	45	51	51	48
Cheshire	27	32	39	41	38
Cleveland	47	49	53	51	52
Cumbria	26	35	35	34	34
Derbyshire	32	41	45	48	47
Devon and Cornwall	31	37	38	41	38
Dorset	36	39	38	39	42
Durham	36	43	44	44	44
Essex	32	36	38	37	35
Gloucestershire	35	46	52	52	52
Greater Manchester	44	50	51	48	45
Hampshire	36	43	45	43	42
Hertfordshire	27	32	34	33	32
Humberside	50	57	61	68	66
Kent	32	43	49	49	49
Lancashire	29	33	35	36	34
Leicestershire	40	48	52	53	53
Lincolnshire	31	36	39	42	38
London, City of	9	9	8	6	6
Merseyside	27	31	30	29	29
MPD	29	31	32	30	28
Norfolk	38	44	46	44	40
Northamptonshire	41	49	48	50	49
Northumbria	53	59	56	53	50
North Yorkshire	32	35	37	41	45
Nottinghamshire	54	61	67	65	62
South Yorkshire	34	39	43	50	50
Staffordshire	32	38	44	44	42
Suffolk	30	32	35	34	32
Surrey	25	29	31	31	28
Sussex	31	37	39	35	35
Thames Valley	39	49	50	50	48
Warwickshire	31	39	44	43	41
West Mercia	29	35	37	39	40
West Midlands	37	42	45	46	46
West Yorkshire	42	55	58	59	57
Wiltshire	27	31	32	31	30
Dyfed-Powys	20	25	27	23	20
Gwent	29	36	39	38	37
North Wales	27	31	35	34	31
South Wales	42	49	51	50	52
England and Wales	34	40	40	42	40

24 Nov 1995 : Column: 379

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