Written question asked by Simon Hughes (Liberal Democrat) on Wednesday, 19 November 1997, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 27 November 1997. It was answered by Lord Boateng (Labour) on Thursday, 27 November 1997 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Dept of Health

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many psychiatric beds have closed in each year since 1980-81. - Inc table.

Answer: Mr. Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many psychiatric beds have closed in each year since 1980-81. [17386] Mr. Boateng: The Department does not collect information on bed closures. Data are, however, collected centrally on the average daily number of available beds. These figures are shown in the table: Average daily number of available beds in mental illness wards in National Health Service hospitals in England, 1980 to 1996-97 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Year Mental illness 1980 87,396 1981 85,436 1982 83,831 1983 81,786 1984 78.911 1985 75,866 1986 72,402 1987-88 67,127 1988-89 62,999 1989-90 59,290 1990-91 55,239 1991-92 50,278 1992-93 47,308 1993-94 43,532 1994-95 41,827 1995-96 39,477 1996-97{1} 37,624 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Source: DH form SH3--1980 to 1986. DH form KH03--1987-88 rds. Note: {1} The return was revised and included a count of NHS managed beds in residential care. Several trusts reclassified beds previously counted as mental illness beds in hospitals, and counted them as residential. These figures are not included in the table. The average daily number of mental illness bed days in residential care is 1,155.

Secondary information