§ Mr. John Browneasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how much his Department spends per year on schizophrenia research, treatment and aftercare; and what this figure is as a percentage of the total annual National Health Service budget.
§ Mrs. CurrieA substantial proportion of the £1 billion annual expenditure on mental illness services is spent on the care and treatment of people with schizophrenia, although statistics are not available centrally to show the precise proportion. Also, we have set aside £6 million over the next three years to establish mental illness development projects in each National Health Service region, and to assist their progress towards improved patterns of care, supplementing three projects on aftercare for schizophrenia which were launched in 1983.
We expect to spend about £0.9 million in 1986–87 on continuing mental illness research projects, a number of which are relevant to the study of schizophrenia. In addition, we have set aside £0.5 million for six new research studies in mental illness—all including people with schizophrenia and one including such people only.
The total gross National Health Service budget for 1986–87 is £18.930 billion.