It’s hard to predict when the Home Office are going to release their latest statistics on section 136 Mental Health Act 1983. The newest batch came out today 6th Nov ’25, the last lot in Sep ’24 and prior to that, Feb ’24 … I don’t like surprises, not least because I’ve spent the last two months drumming my fingers on the table, waiting.
But nevertheless, the headlines this year, are –
- Overall use of the power –
- 31,779, down 5% from 32,827* last year.
* If you choose to open the above-linked posts from previous years, you’ll notice the 32,827 figure is not the same as that quoted for the 2023/24 year. The Metropolitan Police had to admit their own figures were wrong and have had to revise them – see below.
- First choice Place of Safety –
- Emergency Department – 15,171 (48%)
- MH Place of Safety – 14,000 (44%)
- Police station – 354 (1.1%) and over
- Missing data points 2,194 (6.9%).
- Conveyance –
- Ambulance – 12,330 times (39%)
- Police vehicle – 15,506 times (49%)
- Missing data points 2,392 (7.5%).
MULTI-FACTORIAL OVER-SIMPLICITY
Of course, some of the interest each year is in how particular forces vary by their use of the power and by whether they’ve had a reduction or an increase. There are many factors which influence use of this power it’s hard to analyse from this data. The published material doesn’t tell us everything we would need to know to analyse anything more than superficially because the variables which influence its use are not all quantified or published.
All of this which explains why last year I ended up laughing out loud at simplistic explanations for what we are seeing. You may remember, the National Police Chiefs Council told us that the 10% reduction we saw last year was due to the Right Care, Right Person initiative leading to fewer deployments to mental health related demand. It’s a highly intuitive explanation, isn’t it? – it just “makes sense”. When you read below about the Met’s recording / reporting error, that 10% reduction literally disappears so it shows both the quality of the recorded / reporting and the analysis.
Of course last year, many forces heavily and vocally committed to RCRP actually saw a rise in the use of the power, so explanation may be slightly awry, to say the last. And some of that has continued with Humberside Police – where RCRP all began – experienced in 23% increase in their use of the power in this new data, following on from a 10% rise in the previous data.
Meanwhile, Lancashire Police – the second force to adopt the RCRP model – has seen a 14% reduction this year. It’s as ironic as it is interesting note various forces whose Chiefs have been keener to shout about RCRP are seeing increases, whilst those who’ve quietly got on with things are seeing reductions. The exception to all of this is the Metropolitan Police who last year claimed a 26% reduction in their use of s136 MHA but in this year’s data we see a revision to their claim meaning we need to disregard that claim entirely (see below)!
POLICE CUSTODY
As we approach the point where the Mental Health Bill 2025 will be finalised and receive Royal Assent, we need to think again about police custody as a Place of Safety, because the change in law, once implemented, will bring about and end to that practice and we still have 354 cases a year where police custody is being used. However, as with last year, it is worth delving in to the detail.
The relevant data (sheet MH5b) outlines the reasons for using a police station. There are five categories, four of which are based upon two variables –
- Where was the power used – in police custody or away from it?
- Grounds met? – for using a police station, as set out in statutory regulations?
In 237 of the 354 cases (70%), a police station was used as a PoS after 136 was used on someone already in police custody, in circumstances where the force recorded the reason as “grounds in statutory regulations met” (they’d hardly say otherwise, would they?!) and half of those 237 examples happened in just three police forces.
- Police Custody –
- West Midlands Police 118
- Greater Manchester Police 30
- Leicestershire Police 27
You’ll notice West Midlands Police on its own is responsible for 33% of all use of police custody as a Place of Safety so you’re going to have to work hard to convince me that is not due to police culture and practices, rather than because there is something specific to that area’s population which means they need to be such an outlier.
A final point: last year, Greater Manchester were also an outlier for how many times they used s136 away from custody and conveyed someone to a police station because the regulations were thought met. That anomaly no longer features, so it probably was legitimate to wonder why inspectors in GMP were persuadable to authorise that when the inspectors in 42 other forces were not.
DATA QUALITY
Can’t go much further without pointing out how poor quality this data is, though – I know some of it is wrong just by looking at it as this data relates to the final period of my police service so I know what I saw in the final six months of my time. You only need to read the “Notes” tab in this year’s publication to see how many qualifications and revisions there have been to last year’s data, how much the goalposts have been moved and some poor sod at the Home Office must have become truly fed up of typing “comparisons with previous years may not be possible”, etc., etc..
The big find from the “Notes” tab is the revision of 2023/24 data for the Metropolitan Police. They had stated they used the power 4,475 times, but now suggest it was 6,089 times, only 4 fewer uses than reported usage in 2022/23 – so no reduction worth talking about.
So there it is – loads of work for someone still to do:
- Sort out way almost half of all use of s136 goes to an ED when most people will not need their very specific kind of health service.
- Start preparing for no use of police custody at all
- Do better recording of this stuff to ensure analysis is worth attempting.
- Stop messing about with weird use of s136 in police custody – you know who you are.
Awarded the President’s Medal, by
the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Winner of the Mind Digital Media Award
All opinions expressed are my own – they do not represent the views of any organisation. (c) Michael Brown, 2025
I try to keep this blog up to date, but inevitably over time, amendments to the law as well as court rulings and other findings from inquests and complaints processes mean it is difficult to ensure all the articles and pages remain current. Please ensure you check all legal issues in particular and take appropriate professional advice where necessary.
Government legislation website – www.legislation.gov.uk
Mental Health Cop 