I draw attention to the Crisis in Mental Health in the capital city.

We have a Mental Health Crisis intervention service and a social services immediate response unit.

A pilot study of Mental Health Crisis cards.

A pilot study of the Mental Health Crisis cards.

I note that the mental health mapping atlas, which was published in June last year, pointed out that there were particular problems in providing a 24-hour service for Mental Health Crisis resolution teams.

Mental Health Crisis response and assertive outreach teams have proved successful, and their introduction across the Province should be encouraged.

An important part of providing people with effective care is getting a clear, written plan of care agreed between health professionals and patients, focusing on what to do when somebody is experiencing a Mental Health Crisis, what the individual's trigger-point symptoms for a crisis are, what help is available and how to get it.

Two people using Turning Point's Mental Health Crisis services illustrate the lack of trust in the current system.

It is that powerlessness at a time of Mental Health Crisis that patients often talk about.

We want help for carers dealing with mental health issues and we need to address the Mental Health Crisis in our prisons.

There is a Mental Health Crisis in this country today.

I fear that, with deployment after deployment, year after year, the mental health problems we face now, if unchecked, could become a Mental Health Crisis, partly because our armed forces are operating at a tempo for which they are neither fully resourced nor fully manned.

If someone is having a Mental Health Crisis, it does not always happen in business hours or during weekdays.

How can someone start to recover from a Mental Health Crisis when they are terrified every day in their environment?

Hampshire is not unusual, but the important point is to achieve the best possible outcomes for people in Mental Health Crisis.

I want to say something about the necessity of achieving the best possible outcomes for people in Mental Health Crisis.

What plans he has to improve the quality and quantity of Mental Health Crisis care services.

My hon. Friend will accept that a Mental Health Crisis is a very frightening thing to happen to a person and can be life threatening.

Does the Minister agree that when people are experiencing a Mental Health Crisis, the initial response that they receive when seeking help is vital?

When someone goes through a Mental Health Crisis, many people tell them that it will get better, but they might not be believed, as things can look pretty dark and desperate at the time.

NICE has said that a person experiencing a Mental Health Crisis should be assessed within four hours, yet only one in three people is so assessed.

Just imagine suffering from a Mental Health Crisis and ending up in a police cell.

Others have told us that they experience far better treatment in A&E for physical symptoms than when they need emergency help in a Mental Health Crisis or for self-harm injuries.

What steps is the Department taking to ensure that everyone has access to Mental Health Crisis care services that provide alternatives to hospital admission?

The police are too often the first point of contact for people experiencing a Mental Health Crisis.

The second question is about how the Government will ensure that Mental Health Crisis care is given the same priority as other urgent care services.

As a compassionate society, we have a duty to address the growing Crisis of Mental Health in Britain, not only by seeking to control its symptoms, but by tackling its underlying causes.

Does the Secretary of State agree that it is unacceptable that two thirds of people experiencing a Mental Health Crisis do not get access within four hours to a psychiatric assessment?

This debate relates to police involvement with people with mental ill health, particularly during times of Mental Health Crisis.

The Centre for Mental Health states that police are the first point of contact for a person in Mental Health Crisis and that up to 15% of police incidents have a mental health dimension.

I look forward to colleagues' contributions to the debate, to the Minister's and the shadow Minister's responses, and to improved quality of services for those in Mental Health Crisis.

As the hon. Member for Bridgend said, the police are often on the front line in dealing with people who are suffering a Mental Health Crisis.

It should still be a source of shame and a spur to act, however, that we are locking up children at a time of deep and acute Mental Health Crisis.

The concordat will state that people suffering a Mental Health Crisis should be supported in a place of safety, and that there should be no automatic criteria that exclude individuals, although their safety and the safety of others is the paramount consideration.

I have been helped to prepare for tonight by some fabulous people - I have mentioned Matilda MacAttram, and Lord Victor Adebowale has done great work with the police on restraint and how we look after people in a Mental Health Crisis in a detained environment.

Mental health was neglected by Labour, under which there were no access standards or targets for people suffering a Mental Health Crisis.

People who felt that they were going to go over the edge of Their Mental Health Crisis could walk in through the door.

It states: “There is a Crisis of Mental Health in detention, as demonstrated by the many Court cases…Evidence and experience shows that mental illness is the greatest health issue for detainees.

He should tell that to the families of children who have suffered a Mental Health Crisis, but are told that there are no beds available anywhere in the country and end up being held in police cells.

They aim to improve the experience of, and access to, the health service for individuals at the point of Mental Health Crisis.

The new clause simply says that if a person has an accident - for example, breaks their arm - suffers a stroke or has a heart attack, the last place they would expect it to be sorted out is a cell in a police station, but that that is exactly where people who have a Mental Health Crisis find themselves.

That is completely unthinkable yet that is the reality in the UK for people experiencing a Mental Health Crisis.

These are extraordinarily scary places for anyone, let alone an individual experiencing an Acute Mental Health Crisis.

I thank my hon. Friend for those comments and I welcome the Mental Health Crisis care concordat, and what is being done to emphasise that prevention is by far the best way forward, but even with those prevention measures in place I think we would all accept there will still be circumstances where people will reach crisis, and unfortunately a police station is absolutely the last place anyone, let alone a child, would wish to be in crisis.

On new clause 26, I completely agree that police cells are a totally inappropriate place for someone in a Mental Health Crisis.

Given that last year, more than 7,500 people with a Mental Health Crisis found themselves in police cells rather than anywhere appropriate such as a hospital, given that 263 of those people were children and young people, and given that they stayed for 10 and a half hours in a police cell, is it not time that we took the evidence of street triage, which we know works, and rolled it out across the country?

The Metropolitan police are reporting large increases in the number of people in Mental Health Crisis committing offences deliberately for the purpose of getting into prison, because they believe that they will be safer in a cell than on the streets.

Will the Government, if they look carefully at those findings, consider making emergency funding available, similar to that which they made available to A&E departments in the winter, to immediately ease the Mental Health Crisis in beds for adults and children?

The letter I referred to from the royal colleges and other organisations talked about a Crisis in Mental Health.

We have identified £40 million to spend this year to support people in Mental Health Crisis and end the practice of young people being admitted to mental health wards.

If someone suffers a Mental Health Crisis, however, God knows what will happen.

Earlier this year we published the Mental Health Crisis care concordat, in which more than 20 national organisations committed themselves to standards of care in mental health crisis for the first time.

My Lords, does the Minister agree with me and the recent Health Select Committee report into child and adolescent mental health services that it is wholly unacceptable that so many children and young people suffering a Mental Health Crisis face detention under Section 136 of the Mental Health Act in police cells rather than an appropriate place of safety?

My Lords, it is unacceptable for a child in a Mental Health Crisis to be taken to a police cell.

For the first time ever, we have a Mental Health Crisis care concordat to improve the system, signed by more than 20 national organisations.

Within society itself, there is a Mental Health Crisis.

Is that not why people are ending up in police cells, rather than in Mental Health Crisis beds where they should be?

The Mental Health Crisis care concordat should ensure that no one is left without support in a mental health crisis.

The Mental Health Crisis concordat has been signed by 20 national organisations.

In Cambridgeshire, our police and crime commissioner, Sir Graham Bright, facilitated a Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Mental Health Crisis care concordat.

Mental Health Crisis care is crucial.

I shall focus in my speech on the cost to London of the Mental Health Crisis and the importance of parity of esteem between mental and physical health, about which Members on both sides of the House have spoken.

If someone going through a Mental Health Crisis or depression cannot get seen by somebody, they become more and more agitated and stressful.

As we have heard, Mental Health Crisis care is crucial.

It just is simply the case that if people have a Mental Health Crisis at work and leave that workplace for even a short period, their chances of returning are diminished, and the longer they are away, the less chance they have of getting back into any form of work.

I was shocked last week to learn that during 2013-14 there were 17,000 visits to hospital emergency departments by young people in Mental Health Crisis.

That is why this Government have invested £33 million this year in developing early intervention services for psychosis, and in supporting people in a Mental Health Crisis to access the right care in the right place.

This report was launched in part because of the number of children and young people who were being admitted to hospitals many hundreds of miles from home when they were in Mental Health Crisis and needing the highest level of support.

In many areas, police are taking the lead in ending the scandal of people being put into police cells in the middle of a Mental Health Crisis.

Again, the all-party group welcomes the Government's commitment to ensuring that children and young people are no longer detained in police custody under section 136, as set out in the Mental Health Crisis care concordat published jointly by the Department of Health and the Home Office in February 2014.

As regards prisons, the two main provisions of the Bill are the long-awaited introduction of manageable judicial oversight of the bail system, which should end the denial of bail for months and even years, and ensuring better outcomes for those experiencing a Mental Health Crisis, including the prohibition of the use of police cells for those under the age of 18.

It is totally unacceptable that hundreds of children experiencing a Mental Health Crisis are held in police stations, and I therefore welcome the announcement in the gracious Speech that police cells will be eliminated as places of safety for children.

The use of police cells for anybody suffering a Mental Health Crisis, but particularly for children, is wholly unacceptable.

To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they plan to take in the light of the report by the Care Quality Commission, Right Here, Right Now, regarding providing young people with adequate help, care and support during a Mental Health Crisis.

Earlier this month, the Care Quality Commission produced Right Here, RightNow, an investigation into people's experience of help, care and support as a result of a Mental Health Crisis.

The Mental Health Crisis care concordat was another great achievement and it is good to know that everyone has now signed up to it and that most local authorities have a plan to deliver it.

The adoption of the Mental Health Crisis concordat last year was an enormous step forward for the provision of crisis care, pioneered by my right honourable friend Norman Lamb when a Minister.

I acknowledge the excellent work that has been done, and the concordat is clear: people experiencing a Mental Health Crisis should have access to the help and support that they need 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

As other noble Lords said, going to an A&E department is, for someone suffering a Mental Health Crisis, no solution of any kind.

My Lords, following hot on the heels of our excellent debate last week on young people's experience of Mental Health Crisis care, I am delighted that today we are able to debate the Government's response to the children and young people's mental health task force's report Future in Mind.

We know that a high number of under-18s cannot get local help when they experience a Mental Health Crisis, further compounding their loneliness and difficulties.

I regard it as a very good base on which to work and to gauge the success of what we do to deal with Mental Health Crisis care over the next few years.

This morning, I attended a meeting with many children and young people who had experienced a Serious Mental Health Crisis at the weekend and had real difficulty accessing the treatment they needed.

Does he accept that there is a Mental Health Crisis in our schools, and will he resolve to do more if the measures that he has put forward are not effective in the coming months and years?

” What does the Prime Minister say to Angela and people like her who work so hard in the mental health services, or people going through a Mental Health Crisis who may well be watching us today on Prime Minister's Question Time and want to know that we take their conditions seriously, and take seriously their need for emergency beds and to be near their homes and support system, and that we as a society take seriously their plight and are going to help them and care for them?

We have significantly reduced the use of police cells for those in Mental Health Crisis or with mental health problems.

Does she agree that the police in Wales play a vital role in the social fabric of communities, particularly in relation to dealing with the Mental Health Crisis that Wales is experiencing?

A psychiatrist from my constituency will be coming up to talk about mental health triaging so that people at risk of Mental Health Crisis can go to any agency, including their social worker or general practitioner, and receive help, advice and support through the triaging system, so that no one leaves being told that there is an appointment in six months' time.

Research from the charity has Mind found that people in Mental Health Crisis might not be able to get help immediately.

It is a practice which I think is intolerable but which carries on every week of the year and probably every day of the year: the shunting of people around the country, sometimes a long distance away from home, at a moment of Mental Health Crisis.

Someone in a Mental Health Crisis who does not require specialist care should not be sent away from home, full stop.

If I may just make reference to the right hon. Gentleman for a moment, I think his key achievements include: the expansion of psychological therapies; the reduction in the use of police cells for people experiencing a Mental Health Crisis; introducing the first access and waiting time standards; and piloting the sense that there has to be parity of esteem.

I also commend the right hon. Gentleman for recognising the need to improve Mental Health Crisis care and for launching the mental health crisis care concordat, which we have discussed today.

In my constituency, Sussex police were, until recently, at the forefront of dealing with those in Mental Health Crisis.

The Prime Minister and I would probably agree that we need to spend more and direct more resources towards dealing with the Mental Health Crisis in this country.

Someone who is experiencing a Mental Health Crisis and goes to A&E in desperation needs prompt specialist help.

The issue was identified when the Care Quality Commission looked at the work of the Mental Health Crisis care concordat, which has been so successful in its first 12 or 18 months.

We have a Mental Health Crisis that affects the very people that we need to deal with, yet, at the same time, CAMHs are being reduced, and particularly some of the school-based services that can provide early referral.

Those experiencing a Mental Health Crisis and who present a danger to themselves or to others need rapid support and care from mental health professionals.

I hope that the Bill will go some way to dealing with some of the continuing concerns, notwithstanding the work we have done over the past few years in improving the police response to people who are at a point of Mental Health Crisis.

In the last Parliament, I am proud to say that the shadow Health team, and in particular my hon. Friendthe Member for Liverpool, Wavertree (Luciana Berger), raised public awareness of the growing practice of holding in police cells people who are in Mental Health Crisis.

Being ill and black is not a criminal offence, but we know that people of African Caribbean descent who are suffering a Mental Health Crisis are more likely to be subjected to force, to be detained or to be subjected to a community treatment order.

Does he think that there may be risks in enacting these proposals before major investment is put into Mental Health Crisis services?

The right hon. Gentleman may recall that one of his predecessors,the right hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle (Alan Johnson), had an Adjournment debate a few months ago on how we treat children who are in Mental Health Crisis, and he pointed out that one of his constituents was being treated 200 miles from his family home.

Sometimes, we need to question whether we should go further in changing the Mental Health Act, because one downside of police officers specifically being given powers to detain people is that that raises issues to do with liberty and whether somebody is capable of making their own decisions, even when they are in Mental Health Crisis.

Through the Bill we are trying to say - including to the other agencies to which the shadow Home Secretary referred - that a police cell or a police vehicle is not the place for someone in a Mental Health Crisis.

The way we treat people in a state of Mental Health Crisis says much about the sort of society we want to build.

We are glad that the Government recognise, as we do, that police cells are no place for those suffering from a Mental Health Crisis.

We welcome moves to improve the way that the police deal with people suffering a Mental Health Crisis, such as no longer considering a police cell to be a place of safety.

Thirdly, a seven-day NHS requires a big improvement in access to 24/7 Mental Health Crisis care, so that whenever a problem arises we are there promptly for some of our most vulnerable people.

No one would think it acceptable for a patient in cardiac arrest to be sent from London to Liverpool, and we should not accept a young person in Mental Health Crisis being moved around the country in this way.

Secondly, there must be 24-hour access to Mental Health Crisis care seven days a week and this must be funded properly so that crisis resolution teams and home treatment teams can offer a real alternative to hospital admission, which is both better for the patient and, in the long run, cheaper for the NHS.

First and foremost, resolving the Crisis in Mental Health is a funding issue.

Over the past few years, there has been considerable improvement in the way in which police forces and police officers deal with people in Mental Health Crisis.

Quite rightly, the Government want to prevent people from being taken to police stations in the first place - I give them credit for this - because a police cell is clearly not the correct place for someone who is in Mental Health Crisis.

To give credit to the Government, they have taken this issue seriously and both the Ministers who served on the Committee are committed to ensuring that we get the best outcomes for people in Mental Health Crisis in the criminal justice system.

The Policing and Crime Bill will allow us to do that: it will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our emergency services by placing an overarching duty on them to collaborate where it makes sense to do so; it will enable police and crime commissioners to take on the governance of fire and rescue authorities where a local case has been made; it will make changes to pre-charge bail to prevent the injustice of people spending months, or even years, on bail only for no charges to be brought; it will ensure that those experiencing a Mental Health Crisis receive the help they need rather than prolonged detention in a police cell; and it will radically reform the complaints and disciplinary systems to help strengthen public confidence and trust in policing, an outcome that I know will be welcomed by the Hillsborough families, who have campaigned tirelessly for effective accountability in policing when things go badly wrong.

The ban on the use of police cells for people in Mental Health Crisis is a crucial step forward, but it needs to be matched with a commissioning strategy in the NHS that ensures alternative places of safety for people who will no longer be held in police cells.

We are facing a Mental Health Crisis among our young people.

Given the growing Mental Health Crisis, there is a real urgency to innovate, and mindfulness can be part of that.

One lady told me only a couple of days ago that she took her daughter, who is self-harming and threatening to hang herself, to the Mental Health Crisis unit.

Increased funding for talking therapies for distressed young people, which everybody has been pushing for over the past few months, is right, but no amount of therapy will stem the tide of the children's Mental Health Crisis if the root cause of why we need this resilience is not addressed.

Part 4 of the Bill also seeks to transform the experience of those who have committed no crime but who come into contact with the police having suffered a Mental Health Crisis.

We support the Government's recognition that police cells are no place for those suffering from a Mental Health Crisis, but banning inappropriate places of safety alone will not solve the problem of why police cells are used in the first place: namely, a lack of beds and alternative places of safety.

We also welcome provisions to protect young adults in custody and those detained who are in Mental Health Crisis but, as the noble Lord, Lord Rosser, said, that is provided that National Health Service mental health provision is properly funded to ensure that the gap created by not using police cells is covered by the National Health Service.

The Bill makes much reference to the relationship between the police and Mental Health Crisis care.

Anyone who has looked at a police custody suite will realise it is not an appropriate setting for someone in the middle of a Mental Health Crisis.

Like others, I particularly welcome the provisions to ensure that those experiencing a Mental Health Crisis receive the help they need and that police cells are used as places of safety only in exceptional circumstances.

The other area covered by Part 4 that I will mention is mental health and holding people facing a Mental Health Crisis in police cells.