Recurring concern

Unreliable Saturday mental health assessment service for magistrates' court defendants

First to latest report 27 Nov 2017 — 21 Oct 2025

Reports that mention this concern
2
Times this concern has been raised
2
Stated actions linked to this concern
2

What this concern includes

Includes failures of the dedicated Saturday magistrates' court mental health assessment or liaison service, including unavailability, absent Saturday provision, inability to arrange assessment and other service-level failures that prevent timely assessment of vulnerable defendants.

What is not included
  • Excludes general mental health treatment or assessment access failures outside magistrates' court appearances.
  • Excludes weekday, non-court and non-Saturday mental health assessment deficiencies unless they are explicitly part of the same Saturday court service.
  • Excludes failures limited to information sharing, bail decisions or custody arrangements when the Saturday court mental health assessment service itself is not deficient.

Reports and published responses 2 reports

See individual reports that have raised this concern, and the actions taken in response

  1. Northamptonshire

    AI-generated summary

    Paul John APPLEBY · Prevention of Future Deaths report

    This summary was generated using AI from the published report. Please read the original report for the complete account.

    Report summary

    Paul Appleby was arrested for drink driving, remanded in custody, and advised to be seen by Court Liaison and Diversion before release. He was not seen by the team and was found deceased after jumping from the Grosvenor Centre on 22 February 2025; the concern was that the lack of a Saturday Court Service could give rise to future deaths.

    Read the report on judiciary.uk

    Source evidence

    How this individual concern was interpreted

    PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the report wording shown below.

    PFD Monitor interpretation

    Lack of Saturday court service

    Wider context from the report

    “I understand that the Liaison and Diversion Team at Northampton has not operated a Saturday Court Service for several years. Previously an ‘On Call’ service has been provided. I am concerned that this lack of service could give rise to future deaths. ”

    Source location

    Paul John APPLEBY · Prevention of Future Deaths report
    Page 1 · concerns

    Open source report

  2. Milton Keynes

    AI-generated summary

    Jason Basalat · Prevention of Future Deaths report

    This summary was generated using AI from the published report. Please read the original report for the complete account.

    Report summary

    Jason Basalat was arrested after grabbing the steering wheel of a bus, causing it to crash into road barriers, and was remanded to HMP Woodhill. He was found hanging in his cell the following day and later pronounced dead at hospital. Concerns included inadequate sharing of information about his behaviour and mental state with the prison, and the lack of a mental health assessment or appropriate placement consideration before his transfer.

    Read the report on judiciary.uk

    Source evidence

    How this individual concern was interpreted

    PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the report wording shown below.

    PFD Monitor interpretation

    Unavailability of mental health assessment for defendants appearing before magistrates on Saturday mornings

    Wider context from the report

    “(1) The deceased had been arrested for Dangerous Driving when, on the 9th December 2016, he tried to grab the steering wheel of a bus travelling on the M1 motorway forcing it to collide with the barriers in the roadworks. Whilst in police custody the deceased was behaving in a bizarre manner and was assessed by a medical practitioner at the custody centre. When eventually transferred to Woodhill Prison after appearing on a Saturday Morning at Wellingborough Magistrates Court the warrant simply stated that the offence was “Dangerous Driving.” Which did not in any way give a true picture of the offence and very little information was provided to the prison as to his behaviour or mental state. The prison informed me that it would have been helpful for them to receive a copy of the deceased’s custody record that gave the full picture. (2) When the deceased appeared before the magistrates his solicitor was informed that it was not possible on a Saturday morning for a mental health assessment to be conducted. The court did not attempt to contact the prison to inform the prison of the problems being experienced by him due to his mental illness. Consideration should have been given as to the most appropriate place for the deceased to be held or to receive a mental health assessment. (3) There needs to be an urgent review by both the Northamptonshire Police and the Northamptonshire Magistrates Court as to their procedures for sharing information with the prison when it is known in advance that the prison will receive a vulnerable prisoner. ”

    Source location

    Jason Basalat · Prevention of Future Deaths report
    Page 1 · concerns

    Open source report

    Source evidence

    How this respondent action was interpreted

    PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the published response wording shown below.

    PFD Monitor interpretation

    Maintain procedures for identifying vulnerable defendants and obtaining mental health assessments.

    Verbatim wording from the response

    “40. The court does have in place procedures to ensure vulnerable adults are identified and assessments undertaken.”

    Source location

    BASALAT-Response
    Page 5 · response
    Published 27 February 2018

    Open published response

    Source evidence

    How this respondent action was interpreted

    PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the published response wording shown below.

    PFD Monitor interpretation

    Deliver and evaluate training to magistrates on procedures for identifying vulnerable defendants and obtaining assessments.

    Verbatim wording from the response

    “33. As outline above the court does have procedures in place to ensure that vulnerable defendants are identified to the court; see appendix D and E. Magistrates have been made aware of these procedures, see appendix F and training has been delivered to magistrates and evaluated, see appendix G.”

    Source location

    BASALAT-Response
    Page 6 · response
    Published 27 February 2018

    Open published response

    Source evidence

    How this respondent position was interpreted

    PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the published response wording shown below.

    PFD Monitor interpretation

    The concern about Magistrates’ Court procedure falls outside the matters addressed in this response.

    Verbatim wording from the response

    “2.1.2 Point (2) appears to relate solely to the procedure before the Magistrates’ Court and is not addressed in this response.”

    Source location

    2017-0423-Response-by-Northampton-Police
    Page 2 · response
    Published 27 February 2018

    Open published response

    Source evidence

    How this respondent position was interpreted

    PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the published response wording shown below.

    PFD Monitor interpretation

    Additional mental-health assessment was not considered necessary because the police mental-health team cleared attendance and the CPN identified no concerns.

    Verbatim wording from the response

    “24. In any event, on this occasion, the court was advised that Mr Basalat had been given the all clear by the police doctor/mental health team to attend court. There were no concerns about Mr Basalat from the Community Psychiatric Nurse who had assessed him in custody.”

    Source location

    BASALAT-Response
    Page 4 · response
    Published 27 February 2018

    Open published response

    Source evidence

    How this respondent position was interpreted

    PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the published response wording shown below.

    PFD Monitor interpretation

    Existing procedures identify vulnerable detained adults and provide for CPN assessment and reporting when concerns arise.

    Verbatim wording from the response

    “21. The court does have in place a process to provide it with information when vulnerable adults are detained in custody. This is initiated by the police when they have concerns that such an adult is being detained; they will request a CPN to attend the custody suite and carry out an assessment. The assessment is then recorded on form CPN1 and this is then forwarded to the court when the defendant appears before them in custody, or at a later date if the defendant is released to appear on a subsequent occasion.”

    Source location

    BASALAT-Response
    Page 3 · response
    Published 27 February 2018

    Open published response

Actions and positions describe what organisations say in published responses. Implementation is not independently verified.

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Data last updated 7 September 2026