Submitted by: Nottingham and Notts Branch

The National Council of Women recognises that HM Government is addressing the problems which arise from the fact that certain individuals recognised to be dangerous people with severe personality disorder cannot be detained after the termination of a prison sentence. nor detained within the NHS if considered untreatable and notes that the Scottish Parliament has recently passed legislation which will require its courts to take public safety into account when considering applications for release of offenders from prison and which also makes plain that the definition of ‘mental disorder’ includes ‘personality disorder’:

(a) asks HM Government to ensure the adoption of (i) a widely accepted definition of “˜severe personality disorder’ and (ii) generally agreed criteria for defining what constitutes “˜serious risk to the public’ and

(b) asks HM Government, once the definition and criteria above have been widely agreed, to consider favourably proposals for legislation (i) to introduce indeterminate detention in special secure units independent of the prison stem for individuals who are agreed by a multi-disciplinary board to be suffering from an untreatable severe personality disorder and to represent a real danger to society (ii) such detention to be subject to annual reassessment both of the danger the individual represents and of the therapeutic possibilities.