Only 11 of more than 1,000 deaths in Scottish mental health wards over the last decade have been investigated by Scotland's public body overseeing the welfare of patients, according to a new report by Glasgow University.

The study - Nothing to see here - is the fourth annual monitoring report on deaths in state care by the university's Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research (SCCJR).

Published this week, it examines deaths in prison, police custody, migration detention and asylum accommodation and of those sectioned under a compulsory order by the Mental Health Act. It also highlights the deaths of children and young people in care and of people with learning difficulties or who are autistic and living in hospital.

Researchers found that a total of 244 people died in these settings of "state control" last year alone. More than half of those - 138 people in total - died after being sectioned in mental health facilities.

Only two investigations into deaths were published in 2024 by statutory body, the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland (MWCS), the report notes. A further two court-ordered fatal accident inquiries into the deaths of people detained on mental health grounds were also published, according to the report.

Deaths not investigated

In England and Wales all deaths in mental health detention will be investigated by a public coronial inquest but in Scotland fatal accident inquiries are not mandatory in mental health settings although they must be carried out following a death in prison or police custody.

Professor Sarah Armstrong, one of the report's authors, said all deaths of those who had been sectioned should be investigated so that lessons could be learned and lives saved, a call backed by campaigners.

The commission said it was in discussions with the Scottish Government about expanding its remit for investigations into deaths.

Over the past decade 1,232 people have died while detained or under a compulsory order. The number of people who have been detained has increased, and the number of people who have died has also increased. The percent of the total people detained has remained consistently between 1.1 to 1.3 percent.

Armstrong said: "The current process for which deaths are investigated and which are not is not always clear what criteria is used. The whole system is opaque."

She said it was "surprising" that while the Mental Welfare Commission had "done some hard hitting and quite critical investigations" these were only carried out for a small number of deaths.

Armstrong and her team are highly critical of the fatal accident process, which they say is too slow, insensitive to families and fails to make binding recommendations. But she added: "There should be some sort of mandatory, transparent investigation for anyone who dies while in the detention of the state."

She also raised concerns about the increase in the number of people from deprived communities being sectioned, claiming that previous work into deaths in state care showed that families from these communities would have additional barriers in advocating for themselves and their loved ones.

No cause of death is given in the statistics released by the Mental Welfare Commission but there have been concerns raised about the number of suicides in mental health wards.

Suicide and self harm causing deaths of young people in care

An investigation by the BBC in March 2025 found that a patient takes their own life in Scotland's mental health hospitals nearly every five weeks on average, with families raising concerns that not enough was being done to protect vulnerable people.

It also found that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) had issued improvement notices to three hospitals - one in Highland, another in Lanarkshire and a third in Forth Valley - in recent years for failing to reduce the risks of patient suicides.

In 2023 student Jake Llewellyn, who was just 26, died at Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Larbert, near Falkirk. A police investig...