NHS Digital publishes new figures on Mental Health Act detentions

NHS Digital has published new figures on the number of detentions carried out under the Mental Health Act in 2018-19.

This publication provides the official statistics about people with a mental disorder who are detained in hospital in the interests of their own health or for the safety and protection of others, under the Act. It also covers people treated in the community under a Community Treatment Order.

It includes people in secure psychiatric hospitals, other NHS Trusts and independent providers.

The data allows comparisons to be made based on age, sex and ethnicity.

This report does not cover:

• People in hospital voluntarily for mental health treatment, as they have not been detained under the Act
• Uses of Section 136 where the place of safety was a police station

National data published from the 2016-17 publication onwards can’t be compared to previous publications due to a change in the data set. However an estimate of the percentage change in detentions is provided each year.

Local comparisons in this current publication may be subject to data quality issues due to missing or incomplete data returns. Further guidance on data quality, including information at provider level, is included in the publication.