§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list in theOfficial Report, for the latest available date, the numbers of mental illness beds in secure accommodation in each district health authority and those district health authorities where no secure accommodation is available; what action he has taken to promote the development of comprehensive secure provision, including that for those chronically mentally ill and behaviourally disturbed people not appropriate for regional secure units, in pursuance of the recommendation of the inter-departmental Home Office and Department of Health and Social Security working group; and if he will make a statement.
352W
§ Mr. GristI understand from returns submitted by health authorities that, as of 31 December 1988, the latest date for which information is available centrally, the number of mental illness beds in permanently locked accommodation in each district health authority in Wales was:
Numbers Clwyd 20 East Dyfed 10 Gwent Nil Gwynedd Nil Mid Glamorgan Nil Pembrokeshire Nil Powys Nil South Glamorgan 48 West Glamorgan 5 On 21 February this year I announced proposals for the establishment of a departmental advisory group to determine a comprehensive policy for forensic psychiatric services in Wales in the context of the document "Mental Illness Services—A Strategy for Wales" published in May 1989, which sets out comprehensive proposals for the development of mental illness services. At the same time I announced that Clwyd and Mid Glamorgan health authorities have been asked to prepare proposals for interim secure facilities to be available until substantive medium secure units have been established.