Chamber and committees

Petitioner submission of 27 November 2021

PE1878/D - Investigate prosecutions under the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003

This petition is substantively different to my previous petition PE1786 since that was, in my view, closed under false premises.The Mental Welfare Commission persuaded the Committee to close my previous petition on the grounds that there is a shortage of Mental Health Officers. This is totally irrelevant to this petition.

Since my previous petition, more evidence of abuse has come forward. There have been negative articles about the State Hospital and internationally about the ill-treatment of Britney Spears.

l have recently heard of incidents where a patient has been detained and broken their arm and ribs in a mental hospital. This has not been investigated as a section 315 offence, as I believe it should have been. I believe that those responsible almost certainly committed a section 315 offence but no one was prosecuted. There seems to be reluctance on the part of Police Scotland to properly investigate complaints made about people who work in mental hospitals. I am aware of another failure to investigate such a complaint.

In my reading, Mental Welfare Commission reports about mental hospitals tend not to make any serious criticisms of the institutions or their staff. That should not be taken to imply that all is as it should be in those institutions: note that it took undercover BBC filming to expose the extent to which patients were being abused in two English hospitals: Winterbourne View and Whorlton Hall. The inspectorate had reported no problems even though it is reasonable to conclude that parents were likely to have complained to the inspectorate before approaching the BBC.

In my petition PE1878, I contend that the Mental Welfare Commission advised a Procurator Fiscal to drop a section 318 case. Perhaps the Committee should investigate how common it is for Procurator Fiscals to consult the Mental Welfare Commission before making a decision about whether or not to prosecute, that information might be relevant to my petition. Also of relevance would seem to be the actions of the Mental Welfare Commission. That organisation is supposed to be one of the safeguards against mental health patients being ill-treated. However, I am not the only person who is of the opinion that the Mental Welfare Commission fails in this respect. That is another matter which the Committee might wish to investigate because such a failure could be one of the reasons why there are so few prosecutions.

The Mental Welfare Commission OSCR – the Charities Regulator and the Scottish Mental Health Law Review have been informed of concerns about abuse. The only outcome of this is that survivors have been banned from meetings of the Review and none of the survivors have been selected for the Executive Team or any Advisory Group. I note that the Mental Welfare Commission is very well represented and is central to this Review. The recent submission by the Review of 19 October 2021 to this petition gives no concrete proposals for improving the number of prosecutions.

According to the Scottish Government submission PE1878/A, there were 71 section 315 charges reported to COPFS from 2007/08 to 2019/20 a very low number and there has been no naming of professionals involved.

Patients need safeguards to protect against ill-treatment. Advocacy, Advanced Statements and Mental Health Officers are not safeguards. The only safeguards are prosecutions.

Members of my campaign group, Psychiatric Rights Scotland, and other survivors of psychiatric abuse relate similar stories. False statements on documents are made to detain you. Then you are assaulted by staff to subjugate you. You are then given very powerful drugs to sedate you. These misuses of powers are offences under sections 315 & 318 of the Mental Health Act.

If you or your family complain, the case does not lead to a prosecution. Cases involving professionals are referred to the Mental Welfare Commission for “expert” advice. In my experience, this advice is to close the case under lack of evidence reasons.

Please take this petition seriously. Scotland regularly tops the European league table for drugs deaths.The cost to detain someone under the Mental Health Act is at least £6,000 per week per person, an extreme amount to pay for someone who doesn’t wish treatment when there is a lengthy queue for voluntary treatment.

I repeat my request to speak to the Committee and for the Committee to investigate how common it is for Procurator Fiscals to consult the Mental Welfare Commission before making a decision about whether or not to prosecute offences under sections 315 and 318 of the Mental Health Care and Treatment Act 2003.