Public Protection

This week, a person was convicted of murdering two patients in Banbury and causing grievous harm to several others. That reinforces the Secretary of State’s point that many dangerous offenders have mental health needs. There is obviously an overlap, with many such people going into prison for long stretches of time. Can he assure the House that before violent offenders are released on licence or parole, they will be assessed for their mental health needs, that it will be a condition that they co-operate with any appropriate mental health treatment, and that if they do not, that will be classed as a breach of parole? The danger is that such individuals are looked after by the parole system but are lost to the mental health system when they leave prison. At that point, there needs to be a handover from the Prison Service to the mental health service. I hope that I have made that clear to the Secretary of State.