§ Dr. Lynne JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress is being made with the provision of the additional 550 medium secure hospital beds which the Government plan to have in place by 1996; and if she will make a statement.
§ Mr. BowisThere were no medium secure places by 1979 in response to the Glancy report recommendations which were published in 1974.
The number of purpose-built national health service medium secure places has increased from 602 in January 1992 to 712 at the end of December 1994.
A further 446 places currently being developed are due to open by December 1996, and will take the total to over 1,150. We have allocated £47 million in centrally-funded capital to support this development, and additional places are being funded through the main NHS capital programme.