HC Deb 14 July 1988 vol 137 c348W
Mr. Wigley

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland whether his Department has assessed the sufficiency of local or regional monitoring of provision of services for mentally handicapped persons in Scotland.

Mr. Michael Forsyth

The Scottish Home and Health Department has nearly completed the second round of monitoring health boards' implementation of the priorities for the Scottish Health Service set out in the report "Scottish Health Authorities Priorities for the Eighties" (SHAPE). That report recommended inter alia that high priority should be given to the provision of services for the mentally handicapped. Expenditure on those services rose by 6 per cent. in real terms from 1981–82 to 1986–87.