§ Lord SOMERS asked Her Majesty's Government:
§ How much public money is given to the Brook Advisory Clinic; by whom it is given; whether any similar clinics (e.g. the Doncaster Clinic) are also given public money, and if so how much and by whom; whether any new clinics of a similar nature are about to be opened; and whether they also will receive public money.
§ Lord WELLS-PESTELLThe Department of Health and Social Security is making a grant of £21,000 a year for three years from 1st January 1978 towards the headquarters administrative costs of Brook Advisory Centres. The grant is being made under Section 64 of the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968, which empowers the Secretary of State for Social Services to make grants and loans to voluntary bodies engaged in activities in the health and personal social services field.
I understand that, under local arrangements, a number of Brook Advisory Centres receive funds from Area Health Authorities for the provision of family planning services on an agency basis.
The advisory family planning clinic for adolescents recently opened in Doncaster is administered by the Area Health Authority and is funded from its revenue allocation as part of its general health service provision. As the particular arrangements chosen for providing family planning services, including services for young people, are a matter for individual health authorities to decide, I am not in a position to tell the noble Lord whether any new clinics similar to the one at Doncaster are about to be opened.
However, planning guidelines issued last month to health authorities drew attention to the need to provide special family planning services for the young.
House adjourned at twenty-two minutes past eleven o'clock.