§ Mr. GrayTo ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answers of 22 July 1997,Official Report, columns 564–67, what was the average cost to Wiltshire County Council of a community care place in a residential home run by (a) the county council and (b) the private sector in each of the last three years. [19132]
§ Mr. BoatengI refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave him on 22 July 1997,Official Report, column 566. The routine financial statistics provided by the former Wiltshire County Council wrongly included expenditure on independent sector provision along with that on local authority homes. This means that it is not possible to calculate the unit costs requested, as there is no way of separating the reported gross expenditure by sector. Expenditure data for 1996–97 for the new authorities formed out of the former Wiltshire county are not yet available.