My Lords, Amendment 194 would ban the use of Tasers in psychiatric wards. It must be remembered that a Taser is a firearm and when they were first introduced they were restricted for use by trained firearms officers only. How could it possibly be justified to use a firearm on a person going through a mental health crisis and whose liberty has been removed, especially when you do so in a health-based setting where staff are supposed to be trained in the behaviour management of people suffering a mental health crisis? Could it be that the increased use of Tasers in these settings is an indicator of the shortage of properly trained staff in them?
A Guardian freedom of information request on the police response to calls for help from staff at psychiatric units spotlighted the pressures on an overburdened system. The staggering 617 emergency 999 calls by one
London trust in the past 12 months indicate a service in crisis. What we are seeing is the health service relying on a forensic solution to meet clinical need, because we have lost more than 4,000 mental health nurses in recent years. This is a health issue as well as a Home Office issue.
It is also a human rights issue. The United Nations Committee Against Torture has stated that Taser X26 weapons provoke extreme pain, constitute a form of torture and in certain causes can also cause death, as shown by several reliable studies and certain cases that have happened after their use. While termed non-lethal, there have been at least 10 known deaths associated with the use of Tasers in the past 10 years, yet Tasers have been used against patients detained in secure psychiatric settings over that same period. But this scandal has come to public attention only recently, due probably to the imbalance of power between those who use them and those upon whom they are used. I would like to know why the CQC and/or the IPCC have not reported on this before.
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When Tasers were first introduced for use by police on the streets, it was understood that they should be used only in extremis, when the people against whom they were used presented a danger to the public, the police or themselves. However, there has been significant mission creep and there is also a very worrying disproportionate use of these weapons against the black and ethnic minority community. This is a moment to stop and think about this very extreme intervention.
This amendment was tabled in another place when the Bill was discussed there, including by my right honourable friend Norman Lamb MP. The Government have taken a long time to respond. Indeed, it was only yesterday that I received copies of letters, dated 1 November, in response to the debate in another place on 13 June. The Home Office now says that it has written to police and crime commissioners, chief constables and the chairs of local mental health crisis care concordat partnerships to ask them to work together to ensure that there is scrutiny of any use of Tasers in mental health settings unless they already have such a mechanism. They have to ensure that the use of Tasers is appropriate.
Although this is welcome and responds to the concerns of some MPs who took part in that debate, it will not do. It is never appropriate to use a firearm on a sick person. The Minister, Brandon Lewis MP, rightly asks for more transparency in these matters and prays in aid the new data-collecting system for recording the police use of force. Welcome though this is, it is recording post hoc something that should never have happened in the first place. Human rights abuses should be stopped, not monitored. I suppose these data may help bring to light the frequency of this sort of use and the circumstances surrounding it. If they do so, I hope the Government will look carefully at these situations and realise that the use of a Taser was probably not the only way of dealing with the case. Better training, sufficient staff and more creative thinking about how the patient could be calmed without interfering with his human rights and dignity are what is needed.
In a civilised society, this situation requires not only data collection and decisions at local level but a national statement from the Government about how we should treat mentally sick people. This should not require the use of firearms. I beg to move.