§ Ms. PrimaroloTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how much land used by psychiatric hospitals in the South West regional health authority and Wessex regional health authority areas was sold in each year from 1985 to556W 1989; how much money was realised from each of these sales; what proportion of the proceeds was allocated to community care programmes and facilities for people with mental health problems; what these programmes and facilities were; and what the remaining proceeds were spent on;
(2) what land presently occupied by psychiatric hospitals in the South West and the Wessex regional health authority areas is to be sold over the next five years; what timetable is planned for these sales; and what plans are in place for the utilisation of the moneys produced.
§ Mr. FreemanProperty transactions are delegated to regional health authorities and information on sales and future sales of surplus NHS property and land is not collected centrally by functional group. To do so by means of a special exercise would involve disproportionate cost. The instruction to health authorities set out in "Property Transactions in the NHS" (a copy of which is in the Library) is that closures of hospitals for the mentally ill and handicapped must be preceded by the provision of comprehensive alternative services and that proceeds must be used specifically for the development of the alternative services.