The statement made by Luciana Berger, the former Labour MP for Liverpool Wavertree, on 5 August 2026.
For the avoidance of doubt I don’t believe this man should have *any* role in public life – because of both his racism and his view of women.
Kemi Badenoch – you’ve got this very, very wrong.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-11-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 26 October 2015 to Question 12901, on mental health services, whether the figures in that Answer include children and young people.
Alistair Burt
The figures set out in the answer of 26 October 2015 to Question 12901 include children and young people. The number of times people aged under 18 were taken to police custody as a place of safety under Section 136 of the Mental Health Act fell from 256 in 2013/14 to 161 in 2014/15 (37% reduction)[1].
[1] National Police Chief’s Council: http://news.npcc.police.uk/releases/fall-in-use-of-police-custody-for-those-in-mental-health-crisis
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-11-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to ensure that CCGs do not reduce expenditure on mental health budgets to cover deficits in the acute hospital sector.
Alistair Burt
NHS England has made a requirement of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in the planning guidance for 2015/16, The Forward View Into Action: Planning Guidance for 2015/16, that each CCG’s spending on mental health services in 2015/16 should increase in real terms, and grow by at least as much as each CCG’s overall funding allocation increase.
CCGs are required to submit their spending plans and their annual accounts to NHS England. NHS England reviews spending, including for mental health, through the CCG assurance process.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-11-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what safeguards his Department is putting in place to ensure the quality of university specialist mental health mentoring provision when the new single quote system is introduced.
Joseph Johnson
Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have clear responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 to support students, including those with mental health conditions. It is for the HEI to determine what welfare and counselling services they need to provide to their students.
In addition, Disabled Students Allowances (DSAs) are available to meet the additional costs of study-related support needs, where the needs of the student cannot be met by the institution by way of a reasonable adjustment.
A new quality assurance framework is being developed for support that is funded by DSAs, so as to provide assurance on both quality and financial matters. The quality assurance framework will be in place in 2016. All support workers will be required to meet quality standards in order to be funded through DSAs. Discussions with stakeholders regarding new mechanisms for the selection of non-medical help support providers are already underway.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-12-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the number of children who receive mental health assessments on entering care; and what assessment he has made of recent trends in such figures.
Alistair Burt
Data is not collected nationally on the number of children entering care who receive a mental health assessment.
Local authorities are responsible for making sure that a health assessment is carried out for every child they look after when they start to be looked after. The care planning regulations specify that this should include an assessment of the child’s emotional and mental wellbeing. The Department for Education annually collects data from local authorities on the numbers of children continuously looked after for at least 12 months at 31 March who received their statutory annual health assessment during the year. At 31 March 2014, 88.4% of these looked-after children did so.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-12-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of prisoners with mental health problems; how many and what proportion of such prisoners are (a) men and (b) women; and how many and what proportion of such prisoners identify as LGBT.
Andrew Selous
The Government has carried out a survey of prisoners assessing levels of mental health problems within the male and female estate. A link to that report can be found here:
We do not hold data on the proportion of the prison population who suffer from mental health problems and identify as LGBT.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-12-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make it his policy to collect information centrally on how many local authorities have suicide prevention strategies.
Alistair Burt
Data is currently not collected centrally on how many local authorities have in place local suicide prevention strategies and multi-agency prevention groups.
I will be meeting soon with Departmental officials and our delivery partner organisations on suicide prevention to explore ways in which we can work together to progress the National Suicide Prevention Strategy, including improving local delivery of the Strategy, and the collection of information.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-12-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many mental health trusts (a) Simon Stevens and (b) Sir Bruce Keogh have visited in each year since their appointments as Chief Executive and Medical Director respectively of NHS England.
Alistair Burt
Since taking up post on 1 April 2014, Simon Stevens has either visited or met mental health providers on at least 18 occasions.
Sir Bruce Keogh has visited one mental health trust since his appointment.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 17 December 2015 to Question 20083, what steps he plans to take to tackle the rise in the number of people who took their own life on the rail network since 2010.
Alistair Burt
Reducing suicides on the rail network is highlighted as a key area within the cross-Government National Suicide Prevention Strategy (2012) where tailored and collaborative action can be taken. I will be having discussions soon with officials and our delivery partners about ways in which we can re-invigorate the delivery of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy.
Public Health England published guidance to local authorities, Guidance for developing a local suicide prevention action plan (2014) and Preventing suicides in public places (2015), which include advice on working with local transport organisations to take preventative action to reduce suicides on the transport network.
We continue to work with the British Transport Police, London Underground Limited, Network Rail, Samaritans and other partners to reduce suicides on the rail and underground networks.
We support the joint work of Network Rail and Samaritans as part of the Tackling Suicides on the Railways programme, which has continued to grow since 2010. Since 2010, more than 8,000 rail staff, British Transport Police officers and Network Rail front line staff have received training from Samaritans.
This partnership approach has led to the establishment of the National Suicide Prevention Group to tackle the issue of railway suicide, comprising Samaritans, Network Rail, British Transport Police, Train Operating Company representatives and the wider railway industry, such as the Association of Train Operating Companies, Rail Safety & Standards Board and rail unions.
The British Transport Police is a signatory of the Crisis Care Concordat which aims to support people experiencing a mental health crisis. The Department of Health also provided funding support in 2014/15 to enable the British Transport Police to expand its suicide prevention programme to include the North of England as well as the South of England. The programme aims to reduce suicides on the transport network by identifying people who might be considering suicide on the transport network and linking them with support services.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Prime Minister’s announcement of 11 January 2016, whether the £290 million of investment announced for perinatal mental health care is in addition to the (a) £1.25 billion investment for perinatal and children and young people’s mental health announced by the then Deputy Prime Minister in March 2015 and (b) £660 million investment for mental health announced in the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015.
Alistair Burt
The £290 million announced by the Prime Minister for perinatal mental health is in addition to the £1.25 billion announced by the Deputy Prime Minister. It is funded from within the Department’s overall Spending Review Settlement.