Freedom of Information Team
Department of Health and Social Care
39 Victoria Street
London SW1H 0EU
www.gov.uk/dhsc
Mr Kaleb Clark
By email to: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
9 August 2022
Dear Mr Clark,
Freedom of Information Request Reference FOI-1413247
Thank you for your request dated 23 July to the Department of Health and Social Care
(DHSC), a copy of which can be found in the accompanying annex.
Your request has been handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).
DHSC holds the information you have requested. Please find attached to this response, a
copy of the Health Service Guideline HSG (94)5: Introduction of Supervision Registers for
Mentally Ill People from 1 April 1994.
Can you confirm that Supervision registers were formally introduced into the NHS
from 1 April 1994/issued by the NHS Executive (HSG (94)5) Health Service
Guidelines?
Yes. Health Service Guideline HSG(94)5 introduced the requirement from 1 April 1994 for
all health authorities to ensure that mental health service providers established and
maintained supervision registers which identified those people with a severe mental illness
who may have been a significant risk to themselves or to others.
Can you confirm the purpose of Supervision registers?
As set out in the Guideline, the establishment of supervision registers was intended as a
means of identifying all individuals who were under the care of an NHS provider and who
were known to be at significant risk or potentially at significant risk of committing serious
violence or suicide or of serious self-neglect as a result of severe and enduring mental
illness.
Can you confirm the qualifying aspects to be registered on the Supervision
registers?
The Guideline set out that patients should be included if a care programme review meeting
concluded that they were suffering from a severe mental illness and were, or were liable to
be, at significant risk of committing serious violence or suicide or of severe self-neglect in
some foreseeable circumstances which it was felt might well arise in a particular case (e.g.
ceasing to take medication, loss of a supportive relationship or loss of accommodation).
Registers were not intended for young people under 16 years of age.
If you are not satisfied with the handling of your request, you have the right to appeal by
asking for an internal review. This should be sent to
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx or
to the address at the top of this letter and be submitted within two months of the date of
this letter.
Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communication.
If you are not content with the outcome of your internal review, you may complain directly
to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Generally, the ICO cannot make a
decision unless you have already appealed our original response and received our internal
review decision. You should raise your concerns with the ICO within three months of your
last meaningful contact with us.
Guidance on contacting the ICO can be found at
https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us and
information about making a complaint can be found a
t https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint. Yours sincerely,
Freedom of Information Team
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx
Annex
Dear Department of Health and Social Care,
Can you confirm that Supervision registers were formally introduced into the NHS from 1
April 1994/issued by the NHS Executive (HSG(94)5) Health Service Guidelines?
Can you confirm the purpose of Supervision registers?
Can you confirm the qualifying aspects to be registered on the Supervision registers?
Yours faithfully,
Mr C