AT LEAST 475 people in Bradford and Craven were detained under the Mental Health Act last year.

Figures provided by NHS Digital show the detentions were carried out across the former NHS Bradford District and Craven CCG area in 2021/22.

That is a detention rate of 80 per 100,000 people over the year.

The NHS said some figures are an undercount, as a handful of organisations did not submit adequate data.

There were around 53,340 new detentions under the Mental Health Act across England last year, meaning Bradford and Craven’s figure represents just below one per cent of that total.

More than 60 per cent (34,840) of those detained had to be restrained on being admitted to hospital.

Overall the amount of detentions has dropped by an estimated six per cent from 2020/21 but The Law Society said the planned reform of the Mental Health Act must happen "sooner rather than later".

Nick Emmerson, vice president of the Law Society of England and Wales, said: "The current system means there is a risk that compulsory detention and treatment is used too often and that patients do not have enough involvement in decisions about their care.”

The Government's white paper on mental health reform, published in 2021, set out proposals to raise the threshold for detention and allow patients to have more autonomy over their treatment, as well as tackle disparities faced by people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds.

The national detention rate for black people stood at 342 per 100,000 population last year – more than four times as high as the rate for white people (72).

Paul Spencer, head of health, policy and campaigns at Mind, said: "It is simply unacceptable that black people and those of us living in less well-off areas face greater rates of detention.

"These figures paint a damning picture of the hurdles faced by marginalised groups in navigating the mental health system – which should be there to meet the needs of all of us – and illustrate how overdue reforms to the Mental Health Act and wider mental health system are."

A spokesperson for the Department for Health and Social Care said the decrease in detentions is a "testament to the positive steps" it has taken to support people with serious mental health issues.

They added: “However we recognise there is still work to do – we remain committed to ending the unequal treatment of people from black and other ethnic minority backgrounds with mental illness.”