§ 71. Mr. Blenkinsopasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether she has received a report from the Hospital Advisory Service on treatment provided at Broadmoor Hospital; and whether she will make a statement.
§ Mrs. CastleAt my invitation the Hospital Advisory Service conducted a review of Broadmoor Hospital towards the end of last year and submitted a report to me in February.
Reports by the Hospital Advisory Service are made to me on the basis of confidentiality between all the parties involved and are not published.
The report on Broadmoor is being treated no differently from others, but as some selected criticisms and suggestions have been quoted in certain newspapers I welcome this opportunity to say that the report comments that Broadmoor is performing its functions well and its success in reconciling the conflicting demands of therapy with those of security is impressive and puts on record admiration 190W for the Broadmoor staff on the job they do, an admiration for work under difficult circumstances which I share.
The comments and suggestions of the HAS team are being actively followed up in discussions with the hospital staff.
On the wider question of access to information in HAS reports generally there are problems of balancing the degree of confidentiality essential to the work of the HAS with the concern of, for example, community health councils to know the findings of these reports. We are currently considering how best to tackle this problem.