Black people were 3.5 times more likely to be detained than white people under the Mental Health Act in the year to March 2023.

In 2022/23, there were a total of over 51 thousand detentions under the Mental Health Act 1983 in England, a slight decrease in comparison to the previous year. Total mental health detentions include those occurring on admission and those that followed admission to hospital. This statistic displays the number of detentions under the Mental Health Act 1983 in England from 2009/10 to 2022/23.

This publication contains the official statistics about uses of the Mental Health Act ('the Act') in England during 2022-23. Under the Act, people with a mental disorder may be formally detained in hospital (or 'sectioned') in the interests of their own health or safety, or for the protection of other people. They can also be treated in the community but subject to recall to hospital for assessment and/or treatment under a Community Treatment Order (CTO). In 2016-17, the way we source and produce these statistics changed. Previously these statistics were produced from the KP90 aggregate data collection. They are now primarily produced from the Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS). The MHSDS provides a much richer data source for these statistics, allowing for new insights into uses of the Act. People may be detained in secure psychiatric hospitals, other NHS Trusts or at Independent Service Providers (ISPs). All organisations that detain people under the Act must be registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). In recent years, the number of detentions under the Act have been rising. An independent review has examined how the Act is used and has made recommendations for improving the Mental Health Act legislation. In responding to the review, the government said it would introduce a new Mental Health Bill to reform practice. This publication does not cover: 1. People in hospital voluntarily for mental health treatment, as they have not been detained under the Act (see the Mental Health Bulletin). 2. Uses of section 136 where the place of safety was a police station; these are published by the Home Office.

In England, there were around 16.8 thousand detentions under the Mental Health Act 1983 for those aged 18 to 34 years as of 2022/23, the most of any age group. This statistic displays the number of detentions under the Mental Health Act 1983 in England in the year 2022/23, by age.

In 2022/23, there were approximately 35 thousand detentions under the Mental Health Act on admission to hospital in England, the second-highest number reported since 2015/16. This statistic displays the number of detentions on admission to hospital under the Mental Health Act 1983 in England from 2009/10 to 2022/23.

This publication contains the official statistics about uses of the Mental Health Act(1) ('the Act') in England during 2018-19. Under the Act, people with a mental disorder may be formally detained in hospital (or 'sectioned') in the interests of their own health or safety, or for the protection of other people. They can also be treated in the community but subject to recall to hospital for assessment and/or treatment under a Community Treatment Order (CTO). In 2016-17, the way we source and produce these statistics changed. Previously these statistics were produced from the KP90 aggregate data collection. They are now primarily produced from the Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS). The MHSDS provides a much richer data source for these statistics, allowing for new insights into uses of the Act. However, some providers that make use of the Act are not yet submitting data to the MHSDS, or submitting incomplete data. Improvements in data quality have been made over the past year. NHS Digital is working with partners to ensure that all providers are submitting complete data and this publication includes guidance on interpreting these statistics. Footnotes (1) The Mental Health Act 1983 as amended by the Mental Health Act 2007 and other legislation.

This bulletin presents the latest information on uses of the Mental Health Act 1983 ("The Act") in England (excluding guardianship under Sections 7 and 37) between 1st April 2012 and 31st March 2013 ("2012/13"). Data were collected via the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) online Omnibus KP90 collection from all organisations in England which provide Mental Health Services and make use of the Mental Health Act 1983 legislation, as amended by the Mental Health Act 2007, and other legislation. This includes high security psychiatric hospitals as well as other NHS service providers and independent hospitals. These statistics are important in monitoring uses of The Act and will be of interest to mental health professionals as well as service users, their families and representative organisations. Significant improvements were made to these statistics in response to user feedback received during a public consultation on this publication held in early 2012 including refinements to measures and terminology and redesigned reference tables. We also added experimental analysis from the Mental Health Minimum Dataset (MHMDS) and police custody databases, to which which have added for this new report. Additions include further replication of measures from the KP90 collection, new analyses on uses of Section 136 and new patient pathway analyses. Important: Please note that the we reissued the report on the 15th November 2013 in order to correct a number of minor errors which have come to light since publication, the most significant of which was a reference in the Executive Summary to an increase of 16 per cent in detentions under Part III; the later text and the tables correctly showed that this was in fact a decrease of 16 per cent. The reference and experimental data tables remain correct and are unchanged except for additional footnote in Table 18 of the experimental data tables, which was added for clarity.

Explains the rights of formal (involuntary) patient under the Mental Health Act, including: rights regarding being hospitalized against your will (detention); rights regarding treatment; rights regarding the Review Panel; and general rights.

This bulletin summarises information about uses of the Mental Health Act 1983. It includes information from high security psychiatric hospitals as well as from other NHS service providers and independent hospitals. The latest figures for 2009/10 show that 16,622 patients were detained in hospital at the end of the year, an increase of 3.4 per cent from last year. Taken together with the number of people on Community Treatment Orders (CTOs) at 31 March (3,325) these figures suggest that increasing numbers of people are being subject to restrictions under the Mental Health Act. The figures also show major changes in the number of formal detentions, uses of Place of Safety Orders and CTOs.

Objectives: Assess the impact of selective prohibition and seizure of NPS supply on NPS use prevalence within psychiatric admissions and evaluate demographic characteristics of current NPS users. Design: A 6-month retrospective cross-sectional analysis of discharge letters between 1st October 2015 – 31st March 2016. Setting: General Psychiatry inpatients and Intensive Home Treatment Team community patients at a psychiatric hospital in a Scottish city. Participants: All participants were between the ages 18-65. After application of exclusion criteria, 473 discharge letters of General Psychiatry patients were deemed suitable for analysis and 264 Intensive Home Treatment Team (IHTT) patient discharge letters were analysed. Interventions: A nationwide Temporary Class Drug Order (TCDO) was placed on 10th April 2015 reclassifying methylphenidate-related compounds as Class B substances. On 15th October 2015, local Forfeiture Orders were granted to Trading Standards permitting the seizure of NPS supplies. Primary and secondary outcome measures: The primary outcome measure was to determine the prevalence of NPS use in two cohorts. Secondly, demographic features of patients and details regarding their psychiatric presentation were analysed. Results: The prevalence of NPS use in General Psychiatry and IHTT patients was 6.6% and 3.4%, respectively. Inpatients using NPS compared to non-users were more likely to be male (OR: 2.92, 95% CI: 1.28-6.66, p=0.009), have a forensic history (OR: 5.03, CI: 2.39-10.59, p<0.001) and be detained under an Emergency Detention Certificate (OR: 3.50, CI: 1.56-7.82, p=0.004). NPS users were also more likely to be diagnosed under ICD-10 F10-19 (OR: 9.97, CI: 4.62-21.49, p<0.001). Conclusions: Compared to previous work, psychiatric inpatient NPS use has fallen. NPS continue to be used by a demographic previously described resulting in presentations consistent with a drug-induced psychosis and at times requiring detention under the Mental Health Act. Further research is required to evaluate the effectiveness of the recent prohibition of all NPS.

In 2023, there were approximately 54.2 thousand clinical and other psychologists in employment in the United Kingdom, this figure includes both employed and self-employed psychologists. The annual number has experienced fluctuations during the provided time interval, dropping as low as 25.4 thousand in 2011 before peaking at 39.2 thousand in 2015.

Mental health hospital admissions

Under the Mental Health Act (1983), people can be detained for urgent treatment for a mental health disorder if they are at risk of harm to themselves or others. The number of detentions on admission to hospital in England reached over 35 thousand in the year 2020/21. Among them, 18-34 year old adults was the most common age group to be detained under the Mental Health Act 1983.

Mental health and medication

In England, the leading antidepressant drug for was Sertraline hydrochloride, which was dispensed over 21.7 million times in 2022. The same year, the leading dispensed drug for treating psychoses and other related disorders was Quetiapine, which was dispensed over 3.7 million times.