Mentally Disordered Offenders: Crimes of Violence
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 14 February 2025 to Question 29394 on Mentally Disordered Offenders: Crimes of Violence, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of collecting data on the number and proportion of prisoners that had (a) paranoid schizophrenia and (b) other mental health illnesses when they convicted in each of the last five years.
Answered by Sir Nicholas Dakin
Collecting mental health data at the point of conviction provides a limited snapshot in time. The diagnosis of physical and mental health conditions is a matter for medical professionals. NHS England, which is responsible for the commissioning and funding of healthcare services in all prisons in England, records at a national level how many prisoners have a diagnosis of severe and enduring mental health conditions. This does not detail when those diagnoses were made.
The Offender Assessment System (OASys), the core risk assessment tool used by His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service, already captures some psychological and emotional factors so practitioners can explore the impact of these on their offending behaviour, identify their need for specialist support or treatment and can refer or engage with relevant professionals to manage any risk of harm they may pose.
It is not possible to link medical records with justice datasets due to practical and legal issues.
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