HC Deb 29 February 1960 vol 618 cc801-2
1. Mr. Dodds

asked the Minister of Health why Miss Betty Huffer was compulsorily detained at the Littlemore Mental Hospital for 21 years; for how many of those years she was detained solely on account of her mental condition; and, since she has become decertified as the result of escaping from the hospital and remaining free for the statutory period of 14 days, what action is contemplated to check up on her sanity.

The Minister of Health (Mr. Derek Walker-Smith)

Because she required care and treatment on account of her mental condition. No question appears to arise at present of any fresh examination of that condition.

Mr. Dodds

Is not the right hon. and learned Gentleman aware that the medical superintendent has said that this lady could have been out a good many years earlier if there were some other place to which she could have gone? Is it not remarkable that she should have been out for fourteen days and that because she was out for that period after nearly a quarter of a century she is now deemed not to need any care? Is that not a coincidence?

Mr. Walker-Smith

The hon. Gentleman, who pays a lot of attention to these matters, I am sure will be aware that the fourteen-day provision is contained in Section 85 of the Lunacy Act, 1890. He will also know that we have substituted a new Mental Health Act for all these provisions. This lady could have had her discharge earlier under the provisions of Section 72 had the appropriate application been made, but it was not.

Mr. Dodds

Is it not a fact that many people have no other place to go to unless the authorities find a place for them? Why should the taxpayer have to bear the cost of £8 or £9 a week to keep such people in when they could be out, as this good lady is out, working in the outside world?

Mr. Walker-Smith

If the hon. Gentleman is seeking to make the point that it would be a good thing to expand the provision of homes and hostels by local authorities, I made it clear in my answer to him on 1st February that I am much in favour of this development but, as I have said, it will take some little time.