§ Mr. Hoosonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services on what grounds he has allowed regional health authorities to spend money provided by the Government to establish permanent secure units for mentally disordered offenders as general revenue and to compensate for overspending without, in some cases, any of the money being spent on secure facilities.
§ Mr. MoyleCapital funds are made available as required to meet the approved cost of establishing regional secure units. Revenue funds have been allocated to regional health authorities to help run the secure units when they are built, and, meanwhile, for interim secure facilities where these have been set up. In this way the health authorities are able to bring such facilities into operation as soon as they are ready. We recognise that some regions will be more advanced than others in their arrangements and, where secure arrangements have not yet been provided in this form, health authorities have been asked to make good use of these funds for other purposes, as far as possible on services for the mentally ill. I am asking regional health authorities for a report on how these special revenue allocations were spent in 1977–78.