The report found some wards were “unfit for human habitation”, while others were “dilapidated, desolate and depressing”. There was evidence of dysfunctional management and of untrained staff being used to administer electroshock therapy.

“We believe it is a credit to our care services that having always neglected the young and the vulnerable, and the elderly and infirm, we have not forgotten to neglect the insane,” a Govenment spokesman said. “No one has been left behind.”

“While it is clear that our standards are consistently appalling, it is that very consistency that we must be proud of in these difficult times,” he added.