Publication, Part of Mental Health Act Statistics, Annual Figures
Mental Health Act Statistics, Annual Figures, 2021-22
Official statistics, National statistics, Accredited official statistics
Correction to Table 8b
An issue was uncovered where the African and Caribbean ethnicities had been mixed up in Table 8b of the Excel file. This file has been fixed and replaced. The underlying data in the CSV was correct.
12 September 2024 09:30 AM
Detentions: differences between groups of people
Detention rates by higher ethnic group
The White ethnic group is the largest in England, so we would expect this group to have the greatest number of detentions, even if there are missing data. But we can compare detentions for different groups of people (e.g. by age, gender and ethnicity) by expressing them as rates per 100,000 population. This is valid as long as there is no bias caused by the missing data.
Amongst the five broad ethnic groups, detention rates for the ‘Black or Black British’ group (341.7 detentions per 100,000 population) were highest, over 4 and a half times those of the White group (72.4 per 100,000 population), which was the lowest ethnic group in 2021-22.
Detention rates by lower ethnic group
A more detailed breakdown of the five broad ethnicity groupings shows that the detention rate was highest for those with ‘Any Other Black Background’, which forms part of the ‘Black or British’ group. At 760.0 detentions per 100,000 people, this was over ten and a half times the rate for the White British group (69.3 detentions per 100,000 people) in 2021-22. The ‘Any Other Ethnic Group’ had the second highest rate of detention (491.9 detentions per 100,000 population) followed by ‘Any Other Mixed Background’ group at 405.6 detentions per 100,000 population.
Detention rates by gender and age group
Analysis of detention rates by gender shows that rates were higher for males (93.8 per 100,000 population) than females (86.4 per 100,000 population) during 2021-22.
Amongst adults, detention rates tend to decline with age. Detention rates for the 18 to 34 age group (144.2 per 100,000 population) were around 67 percent higher than for those aged 65 and over (86.3 per 100,000 population). Rates for young people aged 16 to 17 (48.3 per 100,000 population) were lower than for all adult age groups.
Detention rates by Indices of Multiple Deprivation
Rates of detention increased with deprivation.
Detentions in the most deprived areas had the highest rates of detention (153.3 detentions per 100,000 population). This was more than 3 and a half times higher than the rate of detention in the least deprived areas (42.1 detentions per 100,000 population).
Last edited: 9 September 2024 9:28 am