mental health detention

The Home Secretary, Theresa May, has pledged up to £15 million of extra funding for health-based alternatives to prevent the police detention of people who are mentally ill, The Guardian reports.

The pledge was made at the Police Federation's annual conference on Wednesday, and also included a proposed ban on detaining children with mental health problems in police cells.

A report by the Home Affairs Select Committee has called for an end to the detention of people sectioned under the Mental Health Act in police cells, reports BBC News. Over 6,000 adults and 200 children with mental health problems were held in police cells in England and Wales last year due to a shortage of NHS spaces. Two of the eleven people who died in police custody in 2013/14 were being detained under the Mental Health Act. 

A new report from Women for Refugee Women (WRW) highlights the plight of refugee women locked up in the UK, The Independent reports.