FOI 787/25

Request

Can you provide annual data (calendar) from 2014-2024, for police contacts logged as 'Mental Health', categorised by age and gender.

Clarification:

I mean the number of incident reports the force has received with a mental health flag.  Due to responses from other forces saying they need to manually review the data, which would exceed the time/ costs of the FOI, can you reduce the time scale to a week/ fortnight please with the gender/ age of the person the mental health flag relates to (first week of May 2025/ June 2025).

If you could do a search for the first week of My or June 2025 (whichever has the least incidents) that would be great, broken down by gender.

Response

A search has been conducted on our crime and incident reporting system (NICHE RMS) for all occurrences (crimes & incidents) recorded throughout the time period 01/06/25-08/06/25 where a mental health flag was attached to the occurrence.

This search retrieved 153 occurrences.

Please note that this search will bring back occurrences where a mental health flag is attached to the occurrences and not the individuals involved. Therefore, each occurrence was manually interrogated to establish who the mental health flag related to and what their gender is.

Please also note the total number of individuals will appear higher than the number of occurrences as in some cases the mental health flag related to more than one individual.

Of the 153 occurrences interrogated: 81 involved females and 110 involved males.

Please note the results retrieved are dependent on how the information has been entered onto the system. As such, the information provided should not be considered statistically accurate and/or definitive and therefore, care should be taken when using this data for any further statistical, analytical or evaluative purposes.

South Wales Police is committed to providing a professional response to all Mental Health related incidents. The force employs three dedicated Mental Health Liaison Officers and a Mental Health Strategic Lead. The force has also made a significant investment in training in this area.

For dynamic assistance and advice the all Wales mental health call line is accessible 24/7 to the public and professionals. It can give advice to officers on the best course of action in dealing with individuals in crisis. This ensures officers make the best choice for the vulnerable person, which will include dynamic signposting and referral to the most appropriate support from Health and social care partners.