§ Mr. Christopher Priceasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) if he will list in the Official Report the number of drug rehabilitation centres supported by his Department;
(2) if he will list in the Official Reportthe number of drug rehabilitation places in institutions supported by his Department made available annually in each of the last five years respectively, and the number of applications in each of these five years;
(3) by how much in terms both of cash and of places available the drug rehabilitation programme is expected to be cut by the present cuts in public expenditure.
§ Sir George Young [pursuant to his reply, 29 November 1979, c. 750–51]The provision of services for drug misusersis the responsibility of health and local authorities. Details are not collected centrally. The level of provision is determined in the light of local assessment of need, the resources available, and the competing claims of other priorities. Local authorities may provide services directly; by grants to voluntary organisations under section 65 of the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968; and by per capita maintenance grants under section 29 of the National Assistance Act 1948. Health authorities have delegated powers under section 64 of the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968 to make grants to local voluntary organisations providing health services in their area, and are 651W similarly empowered under section 23 of the National Health Service Act 1977, to make available certain facilities to assist the work of voluntary organisations in the health and personal social services field.
Though normally the Department makes grants only towards the headquarters costs of national voluntary organisations working in the health and personal social services field, in exceptional circumstances pump-priming grants for a period normally not exceeding three years may be given towards the funding of local projects. At present such assistance is given to the Elizabeth House association, a London-based organisation providing supportive accommodation for ex-drug dependents, for which the Department has approved a total grant of £16,000 distributed over 1979–80, 1980–81 and 1981–82.
I am advised by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Home Department that:
(i) the Home Office currently contributes grant-aid to 13 drug rehabilitation centres which provide places for ex-offenders. In addition the probation service has been authorised, within its own expenditure limits, to fund placings at other establishments on a per capita basis for offenders on probation subject to a condition of residence; this arrangement may include offenders with drug problems.
(ii) there is no central record of applications by the probation service to centres
652W
NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE EXPENDITURE PER HEAD OF POPULATION FOR AREAS WITHIN THE TRENT REGION 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 £ £ £ £ £ Derbyshire … … 50 66 76 84 101 Leicestershire (T) … 55 73 83 95 109 Lincolnshire … … 62 79 87 100 114 Nottinghamshire (T) … 61 87 102 116 131 Barnsley … … 49 62 76 84 101 Doncaster … … 51 65 75 83 97 Rotherham … … 49 67 80 84 94 Sheffield (T) … … 87 111 130 148 169 Notes on Table: 1. "T" denotes an area health authority (teaching) and the relative expenditure figures are influenced by additional expenditure on the provision of facilities for the clinical teaching of medical and dental students. 2. Expenditure figures used have been taken from the annual accounts of the health authorities in the region. Capital expenditure included in the accounts of the regional health authority which is identified as appropriate to a specified area has been included in the expenditure per head of the population of that area. Other regional expenditure not so included amounts to an average of £2 per head of the population of the region as a whole in each of the years shown. 3. The population figures used for each year are the mid-year estimates of residential population, which make no allowance for people resident in one area who receive treatment in another, or for the differences in morbidity and age-sex structure of particular populations. not within the Home Office after-care grant aid system. Places available to ex-offenders in those drug rehabilitation centres supported in part by the Home Office in each of the last five years were as follows:
1975–76 156 1976–77 153 1977–78 143 1978–79 145 1979–80 132 (iii) the authorisation to the probation service to make and fund individual placings of those on probation subject to a condition of residence will remain. There are no plans to reduce the current level of grant-aid by the Home Office to those establishments already within the Home Office after-care grant-aid system.