Mr. Ron Brownasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) how many psychosurgery operations were performed in 1979 and in 1980; and whether this figure includes operations performed in psychiatric units as well as in non-psychiatric units;
(2) if all the costs of psychosurgery operations performed in the United Kingdom in 1979 and 1980 were provided by the National Health Service; whether there was any additional funding such as research grants or private donations; and, if so, what were the amounts involved;
(3) if any of the patients who received psychosurgery operations in 1979, 1980 or to date in 1981 were detained at the time of their operations under a section of the Mental Health Act 1959;
(4) if all patients who received psychosurgery operations in the United Kingdom in 1979 and 1980 were citizens of the United Kingdom; if not, what were their nationalities; and whether the operations were paid for by the National Health Service.
§ Sir George YoungThe total number of psychosurgery operations performed within the NHS in England and Wales in 1979 was 70— 66 in England and 4 in Wales. Details for 1980 are not available centrally. All the operations in 1979 were performed in neurosurgical units, including one such unit situated in a psychiatric teaching hospital; two of them were performed, with the patients' consent, on patients detained under the Mental Health Act 1959.
I have no information about operations outside the NHS. There is no central information on financial aspects of individual operations. Information about the nationality of those undergoing NHS operations is not available centrally. I have asked my right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for Scotland and for Northern Ireland to let the hon. Member have further information relating to Scotland and Northern Ireland.