To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services how many people are currently patients in psychiatric institutions compared with each of the past five years; and if he will make a statement.

Since 1981 there has been a welcome reduction of nearly 20 per cent. (to just over 60,000) in the number of in-patients in mental illness hospitals. The figures are as follows :

Table 2 Mental illness services—other than in-patient provision
England
	1981	1986
Day hospital places	15,300	18,660
Day centre places1	7,600	9,220
Local authority, private and voluntary residential accommodation2	6,040	8,270
Community psychiatric nurses (whole-time equivalents)	1,080	2,530
1 Including an estimate of places in mixed centres.
2 The great majority of mentally ill people in the community live in ordinary family homes. Others have their home in

accommodation (including group homes) provided by eg housing associations and local authority housing departments. These figures are not identified in central statistics.