§ LORD O'HAGANMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the second Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government why the percentage of the budget of the Medical Research Council devoted to mental health is so much smaller than the percentage of National Health Ser-vice beds occupied by those whose men-tal health puts them there.]
§ BARONESS PHILLIPSMy Lords, there is no reason why these percentages should be related. Nineteen of the Council's 79 research establishments have programmes 5 directly relevant to mental disorders, and a further four are concerned with psycho-logical studies. Research in this field often does not require so much expensive equipment and materials as many other kinds of research; the expenditure figures by no means reflect the effort devoted to the problem.
§ LORD O'HAGANMy Lords, I thank the Minister for that reply.
§ LORD PLATTMy Lords, may I ask a supplementary question to this Question also? I accept that figures do not prove everything in this field. Nevertheless this can be a vicious circle, and I wonder whether Her Majesty's Government are fully aware of the fact that the less money that is put into mental health research, the less will able people go in for it. I wonder whether Her Majesty's Government have further considered the fact that this question, in view of all its social implications—delinquency, crime, drug addiction and so on—is now of such importance that it may be time for Her Majesty's Government to take action quite outside the Medical Research Council, by increasing the budgets of university departments and establishing new chairs in psychiatry.
§ BARONESS PHILLIPSMy Lords, if I may lake the second part of the noble Lord's question first, Her Majesty's Government are well aware of the new trends that have come to the surface in this particular field of medicine and are looking at this problem all the time. I would not presume to question the actions of the profession of which the noble Lord is a very distinguished member, but surely one is not always attracted to research by virtue of the high salaries that are offered.
§ LORD SEGALMy Lords, are not highly relevant factors here the enormous reduction in the average stay in hospital of mentally sick patients, the far greater turnover in the number of beds available, and also the far greater extension which has recently taken place in out-patient facilities?
§ BARONESS PHILLIPSYes, my Lords. I should like to thank the noble Lord for making the point which we all know to be the case. It plays a very important part in replying to a question of this kind.