§ Mr. WigleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will publish a summary of the actions that were taken by his Department arising from the report by the working party chaired by Mr. Owen Hughes into the question of the provision of secure accommodation in Wales for people with psychiatric needs.
§ Mr. RichardsThe Report, "Security in Psychiatric Hospitals in Wales", was produced in July 1975 and has long since been overtaken by more recent policy developments, culminating in the publication of the report of the all-Wales advisory group on forensic psychiatry in 1991, a copy of which has been placed in the Library of the House.
On 19 April 1993, it was announced that additional funding of £9.25 million for new hospital facilities in Wales for mentally ill offenders. This included £1.2 million for the expansion of the Caswell clinic from 14 to 33 beds and to provide additional revenue support to compensate health authorities for the high cost of maintaining these patients. Three million pounds was made available to fund the development of a medium secure unit for north Wales.
The new beds at the Caswell clinic should be available by 31 March 1995. In north Wales, planning approval to develop a purpose-built, 25-bed medium secure unit at Llanfairfechan was obtained on 9 November 1994. The facility is expected to open in the latter half of 1996.