UK Edition
Mentally ill held without charge for lack of NHS beds
Police are illegally detaining more than 4,000 vulnerable mentally ill people in custody a year because of a lack of NHS beds, an unpublished inquiry by the cabinet office reveals.
The 4,500 arrested people who are as young as 15 and need mental health care are being held for up six days without charge, mostly in police cells, because of NHS delays in finding a bed.
Officers are supposed to release or charge a person within 24 hours of arrest under the police and criminal evidence act but are having to hold them for longer to prevent them harming the public or themselves. It leaves the police and NHS open to thousands of potential legal claims for compensation for false imprisonment and breach of people’s human rights under the UN convention.
The government study also lays bare for the first time the scale of the growing mental health crisis which police chiefs say is not only unlawful and a breach of people’s human rights to liberty but is also distracting officers and resources from fighting crime. It conflicts with a pledge by Theresa May, when home secretary, who said no-one with a mental health problem should be detained by police due to lack of beds.
Two-thirds of all suicides after police contact or arrest are people with mental health problems. Figures this autumn will show the number of people detained by police for their own safety under another section 136 of the mental health act has risen by 66% from 18,000 to 30,000 in 10 years. Up to 4,500 of those are also being unlawfully held for over 24 hours due to a lack of NHS beds.
Chief constable Mark Collins, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead on mental health, said between 30 per cent and 40 per cent of demands on police time were now being taken up with mental health-related problems and crime linked to them.
“Officers and staff around the country are tied up with dealing with these issues and baby-sitting people when they should be out fighting crime and providing a policing presence on the street,” he said.
“The solution is investment in the mental health service. It’s an increasing area for the NHS and it’s not being adequately funded.”
The cabinet office research, based on an in-depth analysis of seven representative police forces, also found about half of the people arrested with mental ill health were unlawfully detained for over 24 hours. It is thought one of the youngest was aged just 15 and was held illegally for five days after his arrest.
Chief Inspector Michael Brown, lead on mental health for the College of Policing, said it was an “urgent” problem the NHS needed to resolve. The total could be as high as 9,000 unlawful cases. "Just being locked up can be really traumatic. It's a violation of people's fundamental human rights," he said.
"It is just straightforwardly unlawful. The law does not allow for up to six days without charge pending the identification of a mental health bed. As the delays have got longer and longer, more and more officers are saying this is not right."
Mr Brown said it placed police in an impossible position: "Most officers would say they’d rather be disciplined for keeping someone safe who was an obvious risk to themselves than face the prospect of a prosecution for letting someone die when it was obvious they were likely to end their lives."
A government spokesman said an independent review of the mental health act would put forward recommendations to tackle the problems in police custody, backed by record investment in mental health services. He said ministers had made clear it was “unacceptable” for a person with mental ill-health to be held in custody for longer than necessary. He said the number detained in police custody under section 136 had fallen by nearly 90% since 2011/12, and this year is expected to drop to 400.