HC Deb 29 July 1957 vol 574 cc854-6
16. Mr. K. Robinson

asked the Minister of Health if he will implement the recommendation of the Royal Commission on the Law relating to Mental Illness and Mental Deficiency that patients' letters shall no longer be subjected to censorship.

17. Mr. Leavey

asked the Minister of Health what action he proposes to take on the recommendation of the Royal Commission on Mental Health that the outgoing letters from patients in mental and mental deficiency hospitals should be despatched unopened.

Mr. Vaughan-Morgan

Superintendents are required by statute to forward unopened all letters addressed by patients to certain specified persons and bodies and may at their discretion forward other letters. The recommendation of the Royal Commission on this subject will be considered with others which involve legislation. Meanwhile, I am having a letter sent to superintendents suggesting that in view of the Commission's recommendations where this is not already being done, they should exercise their statutory discretion to open outgoing letters of patients only where they have cause to think that the contents might be offensive to the recipients.

Mr. Robinson

In congratulating the hon. Gentleman upon virtually terminating this undesirable practice, may I now ask him to press ahead with some of the other recommendations in the Royal Commission's Report which do not require legislation?

Mr. Vaughan-Morgan

With regard to the second part of the hon. Gentleman's supplementary question, I will certainly do my best. With regard to the first part, I do not think I ought to mislead the House into thinking that this is a very important step forward. The statutory right of censorship must remain with the superintendent, but I felt that what I have announced might be a little token of how we were trying to press on.

33. Mr. Sorensen

asked the Minister of Health how many applications for discharge by or on behalf of certified mentally ill and mentally deficient patients were received and how many were rejected during 1956; and how many were discharged but subsequently returned to hospitals.

Mr. Vaughan-Morgan

I regret that this information is not available.

Mr. Sorensen

Surely the hon. Member should take steps to acquire this information, particularly in view of the statement made that large numbers of people who apply for discharge are not given it and others who ought to be outside mental hospitals are inside. Surely the information for which I have asked would be extremely helpful in this connection.

Mr. Vaughan-Morgan

I have looked into the matter. It is rather difficult to know in what form this information could be recorded. I do not think that we want to create too much of a complicated central register. I fully appreciate the hon. Member's point, but I think that the best thing to do is to continue to look at individual cases.

Dr. Summerskill

Although the statistics regarding the first part of my hon. Friend's Question might be difficult to obtain, the second part of the Question is very important, and that would provide a guide to the efficacy of certain new therapeutic measures.

Mr. Vaughan-Morgan

As a result of the Report of the Royal Commission the whole question of statistics will be looked at again. If I may go rather away from the narrower point, I would point out that the difficulty that we are in is that we do not want to change too often the basis upon which statistics are called for, and any final form must await legislation.

Mr. Doughty

In view of the hon. Member's suggestion that people are detained in mental hospitals who are better outside, and also in view of the fact that there is a great shortage of vacancies in these hospitals, can my hon. Friend assure us that nobody is detained who can possibly be released?

Mr. Vaughan-Morgan

This is hardly the moment to raise again the whole Report of the Royal Commission.

Mr. Sorensen

Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that I made no suggestion that large numbers of patients were inside who should be outside? I said that that was the impression. Could not the Minister at least obtain certain sample statistics from half a dozen prominent mental hospitals?

Mr. Vaughan-Morgan

I will certainly consider that suggestion.