A record number of autistic patients is locked up against their will alongside rapists and murderers in the maximum safety hospital in Scotland.
Nineteen people with autism or learning disorders are held in Carstairs in Lanarkshire despite never receiving a criminal conviction.
The figure is more than double the nine patients who were held on the facility in 2022, when the Scottish government postponed an 'coming' plan and promised to remove autistic people from hospital environments in the aftermath of the prize on Sunday's award -winning campaign is locked up because they are Austistic.
But while England and Wales introduce new laws to make the practice illegal, a new probe shows that the situation in Scotland is worse than ever before.
Last night, chairman of the Scottish Human Rights Commission Professor Angela O'hagan – who will discuss the vision of autism – Detencies in Holyrood on Tuesday – said that the Scottish government was at the risk of breaking the European Convention on Human Rights.
She said: “The Scottish Human Rights Commission is worried about this. People in forensic learning disorders are subject to the highest degree of limitations on their human rights, and their situation must be investigated and tackled with a corresponding level of priority.
'People who hold in forensic learning disorders, including the State Hospital, can spend many years in the hospital, but our recent research emphasizes that they were not included in the implementation plan of the Scottish government.
“More interrogation of the figures and detention conditions of this population is urgently required.”
Tracey Gibbon fears that her son Kyle Gibbon will be held against his will for the rest of his life after he has been held in the State Hospital for more than 15 years.
The Staatsziekenhuis is a maximum security forensic hospital that houses some of the most corrupted murderers and rapists in Scotland.
Professor O'hagan added: “Allowing the detention of people with learning disabilities and whether they are autistic without appropriate care, the Scottish government places the risk of violating the European Convention on Human Rights.”
In a response to an application for a freedom of information from this newspaper, the State Hospital admitted that there were 19 people with autism and learning disabilities under their care from this month.
But asked how many of them had been held as a direct consequence of a criminal conviction that had been transferred by a sheriff or judge to a Sheriffhof or the Supreme Court, or equivalent for Ireland, replied the Health Board: “Zero.”
Instead, they are held there under mandatory mental health treatment assignments or the criminal procedures ACT – which is for people accused of a criminal act and who may have a mental disorder.
According to the NHS, autism and learning disabilities are not psychological disorders.
An earlier FOI response from 2022 stated that there were nine people with autism and learning disorders that were held in Carstair without a criminal conviction.
We have the Kafkaesque test of Kyle Gibbon, 36, detailed that has been held in the State Hospital Miles of his mother, Tracey Gibbon, in Aberdeen for the past 15 years.
MS Gibbon's MSP, the Scottish Conservative Alexander Burnett, has locked the Email for an autistic campaign.
Once a well -considered and soft soul who always wanted passers -by to complimented on their dresses by a good day and ladies, he now spends his days in the secure institution after being divided under the mental health laws without the knowledge of his family.
Mrs. Gibbon says he has been beaten, bullied, locked up in lonely imprisonment, forced to be anesthetized of powerful medicines and often reluctant.
Last year, his family revealed that he had been 'washed up as an animal' for months – in a so -called 'safe holding system' that binds his arms and legs to his hull.
Last night Mrs. Gibbon's MSP, Scottish conservative Alexander Burnett, said that the Scottish government institutionalized people with autism.
He said: 'Despite years of pressure by post on Sunday, the SNP government still sends autistic people to the Staatsziekenhuis.
'The fact that the number of vulnerable adults that are locked up there is more than doubled is to be honestly ominating.
'They are held in the vicinity of some of the most paved criminals in Scotland.
“This is a national scandal. One of the SNP government caused her erosion of ASN support to power for 18 years.
“It must protect these people, as is done in England with the mental health account – not institutionalization.”
The Mental Health and Wales bill will reform the 'Very outdated' Mental Health Act (MHA) of 1983 and prevent autistic people from being held in mental health care hospitals only because they are autistic.
In February 2022, the Scottish government promised to relocate the majority of patients with learning disabilities and autism from hospital environments in March 2024.
Nevertheless, a report from the Mental Welfare Committee previously showed that 55 people with learning disabilities in Scotland have been detained in hospital environments for more than 10 years.
A spokesperson for the Scottish government said: 'A number of criteria must be met before people can be treated under the Mental Health Act and the law is clear that no one can be held in Scotland, simply because they are autistic or have a learning disorder.
'There are times when people are not yet ready to be dismissed in the community for the safety of their own or other people, and as a result they can be in secure hospital environments for a longer period to receive the necessary care and treatment.
'The Come Come Home program is primarily aimed at people who have closed their period of treatment within hospital environments and waiting for dismissal. This does not include people who are admitted to the State Hospital. '
The State Hospital said that “all patients who receive care and treatment within the State Hospital are being held legally.”
