Mental health detainees were held at Cambridgeshire police stations nearly half a dozen times last year

The Government has set out plans to reform the 40-year-old Mental Health Act, which include ending the use of police cells to hold someone experiencing a crisis and ensuring people detained under police powers are taken to safety in an ambulance.

The Act allows police to remove someone to a place of safety for up to 72 hours if they appear to be suffering from mental health problems and need immediate care.

Current guidance states a person must not be taken to a police station unless there is “imminent risk” of death to themselves or others.

Home Office data shows Cambridgeshire Constabulary held detainees at a station five times in 2019-20.

A police vehicle was also used to take people to safety on 259 occasions – accounting for 54 per cent of the total 483 detentions carried out over the period – despite the Act’s Code of Practice stating ambulances or other health transport should be used.

Of those, the largest number (109) occurred because an ambulance was unavailable within half an hour, while there was risk of harm due to the person’s behaviour on 84 occasions, and an ambulance was not requested by officers in 45 cases.

Across England and Wales, 15,300 people detained under the Mental Health Act were taken to safety in a police vehicle last year, while 159 were held at a police station.

A new Government white paper, which lays out the sweeping proposals to reform and update the Act, says the use of police vehicles to transport detained people in a crisis “risks making patients feel that they are being criminalised for their mental health”.

Ministers have pledged to improve ambulance provision for urgent mental health cases and amend the act to remove police stations as designated places of safety by 2024.

They are among the many proposed changes aimed at tackling inequalities, ensuring powers are used in the least restrictive way and bringing parity between mental and physical health services.

Matthew Scott, mental health lead at the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, welcomed the proposals.

He said: “Vulnerable people need the right care from the right person at the right time; and police officers are not mental health professionals.

“Patients should be conveyed to places of safety by ambulance, not in the back of a police car. Perhaps more importantly, we need to see more investment in community-based mental health support services which prevent people from reaching a mental health crisis in the first place.”

He added the amendments would lead to officers having more time to deal with crime and anti-social behaviour.

This would be instead of so often being inappropriately called to incidents where someone is mainly suffering from mental ill-health, as there was no-one else to call.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock told MPs: “The new Act will ensure patients are put at the centre of decisions about their own care, that everyone is treated with respect and the law is only used to compel treatment where absolutely necessary.”

Mental health charity Mind said it is “just the beginning of what is now a long overdue process”.

Sophie Corlett, Mind’s director of external relations, said “as many people as possible with experience of mental health problems” should now take part in the public consultation process, which is due to run until April.