asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish in the Official Report lists showing (a) those long-stay mental hospitals currently approved for closure, (b) those long-stay mental hospitals listed in regional strategic plans as proposed for closure before 1995 and (c) those long-stay mental hospitals that have been indicated by regional health authorities as possibilities for closure outside the strategic planning period listing in each instance the present number of in-patients.

[pursuant to her reply, 21 January 1987, c. 619–20]: The primary objective of policy on services for people who are mentally ill is the development of a range of high quality local facilities so that people can use the services they need with the minimum of formality and delay, and without losing touch with their everyday lives. The reduction in size of some hospitals, and the closure of others, will be a consequence of achieving that aim, and accompanied by the development of psychiatric services in each district which now lacks them. These will provide in-patient facilities for people who need admission for assessment, acute treatment, or longer term care, together with a comprehensive range of community facilities.Almost all mental illness hospitals care for both long-stay and short-stay patients, but I have obtained information on the one hundred or so large traditional mental illness hospitals (that is, those which had over 200 beds in 1975), which care for most long-stay patients. Of these hospitals, table 1 indicates those where public consultation has been completed and closure approved, in both cases with the support of the local community health council. It indicates when closure was approved, and the number of in-patients on 31 December 1985.Table 2 lists those hospitals which regional health authorities have indicated they plan to close by about 1995, subject to the results of the public consultation, which has yet to take place or is now under way, and the provision of appropriate alternative accommodation and services. Some of the in-patient care provided by these hospitals will still be needed and some parts of hospitals, for example wards providing acute care and psychogeriatric care, will move with their patients to new locations meeting the aims set out in the first paragraph above. Regional health authorities' plans must also meet the needs of those long-stay patients who need continuing in-patient care. And plans must provide too for the identification of other suitable accommodation and support (which will need to be tailored to the needs of individual patients) for those who no longer need to remain in in-patient care.Most of these closure proposals were included in regional strategic plans, but the list takes account of changes since then. Circumstances do not enable regional health authorities to indicate systematically any plans for the period after 1995 or so.