Blunkett plans to detain more psychopaths

David Blunkett plans to detain indefinitely more than 10 potentially dangerous psychopaths a month even if they have committed no crime.

Under the Mental Health Bill, currently out for consultation, the Home Secretary estimates that 124 people with severe personality disorders should be placed in secure mental hospitals each year to prevent them from committing crimes. That is in addition to about 2,400 covered by existing laws and 26,000 who could be forcibly treated in the community if they refuse to take their medication.

Civil liberties groups have criticised the plans, though its supporters claim potentially dangerous people should be taken off the streets.

There are currently 698 people with psychopathic disorders in secure units. These plans, disclosed in a Lords written answer, would mean that number would increase by 124 a year after a loophole, allowing people with untreatable severe personality disorders to roam free, is closed.

If the Bill becomes law, it will require only the signatures of two doctors and a mental health professional to place a person into secure accommodation. They need not have committed any crime.

Lord Falconer of Thoroton, the law reform minister, described such people as "being at substantial risk of serious harm to other persons due to a severe personality disorder". He estimated that 200 sexual or violent convictions each year were handed down to people with severe personality disorders.

In a separate answer, however, the Home Office minister Hilary Benn admitted assessments of people who were dangerous as a result of a severe personality disorder was in pilot stages. Assessments were being made of those held at Whitemoor prison and Rampton hospital to "develop a framework for assessment in which clinicians, tribunals and the courts can have confidence".

Gareth Crossman, a spokesman for the civil liberties group Liberty, said: "These extra people will be detained not because they have done anything wrong but because the Government feels that they may do something wrong in the future.

"It is an extremely serious step. There is a real risk of people being detained on extremely dubious grounds and with no treatment in prospect."

Liberty believes the conditions that can trigger enforced treatment or detention are "so broadly drawn that it could cover anything from a mild depression".

The shake-up of the mental health laws – the biggest for more than 40 years – is expected to make progress when the consultation period ends in mid-September.

A spokeswoman for the Home Office said: "What this whole programme is doing is trying to ensure there are facilities available for people with severe personality disorders whereas in the past these people have been poorly served."