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Adults with Learning Disabilities

I am following the hon. Gentleman's remarks carefully. He is dealing with extremely sensitive issues, and I respect very much the way in which he has put his case. However, I hope that he has had time to read a Select Committee report of some years ago, which dealt with adult mental and physical handicap and looked at the closure of long-stay hospitals. I was a member of that Committee, and we visited many people who had been discharged into the community. The hon. Gentleman might be surprised to hear that quite a number of them complained that they had not been consulted before they were discharged. One man in Norwich, who was quite elderly, said that he had never been so lonely in his life and that he wished that he had never been discharged. Should we not provide facilities for all, whatever their needs, rather than saying that long-stay hospitals are no good and that everyone should be in the community? Is it not right that those people should be consulted?