HC Deb 15 January 2004 vol 416 cc855-6W
Mr. Burstow

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much was spent on adult mental health services in each year since 1997–98; what the projected expenditure is in financial year 2003–04; if he will provide the figures in(a) cash terms and (b) Retail Price Index-adjusted terms using 1997–98 as a baseline; and if he will make a statement on the method used for compiling the figures. [143715]

Ms Rosie Winterton

The table sets out the mental health services expenditure on patients aged 16 or over since 1997–98.

£million
Expenditure RPI-adjusted expenditure
1997–98 2,849 2,849
1998–99 3,011 2,894
1999–2000 3,188 3,016
2000–01 3,729 3,427
2001–02 4,006 3,617

It is not possible to estimate the expenditure for mental health services for 2002–03 and 2003–04 until the national health service accounts for these years are finalised, at the end of January 2004 and 2005 respectively.

The figures are taken from the Expenditure Per Head of Population (EPHoP) analysis of healthcare spend. EPHoP measures activity from in-patients, out-patients and community based patients against expenditure taken from the hospital and community health service programme budget. The programme budget is compiled using NHS accounts—a combination of finance returns from strategic health authorities, NHS trusts, primary care trusts and the strategic health authority summarisation schedules.

Activity data from a range of sources, for example hospital episode statistics, Körner community returns, the Living in Britain survey, etc. are used to distribute the expenditure figures for each sector—mental health, acute services, etc. proportionally across the whole population.

Using the combination of expenditure and activity figures, the treatment cost is for each person within each age group and for each type of activity is calculated.