§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the deficit of each health authority for(a) 1988–89 and (b) the latest available month.
§ Mr. FreemanI have placed the information derived from the 1988–89 annual accounts of each regional and district health authority in England together with those of the special health authorities for the London postgraduate teaching hospitals in the Library.
Health authorities' spending is monitored and controlled on a regional basis by means of a cash limit applied to their receipts and payments. Within the limits of financial prudence they may incur either a deficit or a surplus on the accrued income and expenditure recorded in their accounts. For 1988–89 health authorities collectively remained within cash limits and as shown in the table their accounts in aggregate record a small overall surplus.
Information about the in-year financial position of individual health authorities is not collected centrally.