§ Lord Carterasked Her Majesty's Government:
What consultations took place with local authority associations before the decision was made to phase in community care between April 1991 and April 1993.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Baroness Hooper)Ministers and officials have consulted regularly with the local authority associations as we have taken forward the work on our community care proposals.
§ Lord Carterasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they were considering the phasing in of community care between April 1991 and April 1993 while the National Health Service and Community Care Bill was before Parliament and, if so, when and where this was made clear to Parliament.
§ Baroness HooperWe have always stressed that the implementation of all our plans under the National Health Service and Community Care Act would be evolutionary and that implementation would get under way on 1st April 1991. My right honourable and learned friend the Secretary of State for Health announced in another place on 18th July the Government's intentions for phased implementation in a statement which I repeated.